Silent Lucidity
by esmtz
Summary: Queensryche. Nick says he hates Ellis, but does he? What happens when he thinks he's lost him forever? NickxEllis UPDATED MALE ON MALE if you don't like then get out!
1. Stressed Out

Silent Lucidity

By esmtz

Ever since the infection hit and he found himself having to fight for his life along with three other people Ellis ended up falling for someone in the group. Despite the fact that Nick obviously had problems with him it didn't faze or stop Ellis from trying to gain his attention. Whenever a special infected showed up Ellis tried his best to impress him with his shots and whenever Nick got hurt he was there to help him. Of course a lot of times when he got hurt Ellis kept saying that he just wanted Nick to help him and when he did Ellis had this huge grin on his face that clearly got on Nick's nerves.

"What's your problem?" Nick had asked since this was the fifth time he healed him and Ellis once again had a goofy grin on his face.

"Oh nuthin." Ellis replied still smiling.

Nick sighed shaking his head. It had been like this for awhile making Nick give him pain pills or heal him when he needed it unless of course he was hurting too and he'd have to accept help from his other teammates Coach and Rochelle. He got along really well with them both for awhile until he saw just how often Nick and Rochelle were together. He understood that they were trying to get out of this alive as a team, but did Nick have to protect and help her as much as he was? Ellis couldn't help but feel a little jealous when Nick's attention was on Rochelle or Coach and not him.

'They need help too. Don't be so selfish all the time, man.' Ellis thought to himself.

He tried his best to keep his mind off it by either paying more attention to the zombies or if they were in a safe house either grab ammo or stare at a wall if he was already ready to go. Even during the night when he was supposed to be asleep all Ellis could think about was Nick. The next day they were going to go out and pass the sugar mill to get to the gas to bring back to Virgil.

'I hope Nick's ok. He didn't look too good even after Rochelle healed him.'

Ellis took a deep breath in and then let it out. He didn't know why but even after he's told himself a thousand times before that they were a team it didn't do anything to stop the jealousy that was building inside. It wasn't until a couple of days later that he overheard Nick and Rochelle talking that night inside the safe house.

"…he's driving me crazy! I can't stand it anymore!"

Ellis's eyes went wide as he hid himself from view having just come downstairs to get some water to drink before going to bed. Rochelle sighed.

"Nick, he just likes you that's all. You should at least be grateful that he cares enough about you to help you out all the time." Rochelle replied.

"Well I'm getting sick and tired of it! Haven't you noticed, Rochelle? Ellis is fucking selfish! He's always trying to get me to fucking help him all the time that I can't even help you when you need it!" Nick said angrily.

"Coach and I do ok on our own, Nick. We really just need help with dealing with the zombies." Rochelle told him.

"Rochelle, there's been a few times when you or Coach needed help because a tank, witch, or something has taken you down and before I can even help you that stupid kid somehow manages to get himself into trouble as well!" Nick ran his hand through his hair clearly stressing out.

"Yeah, but Nick Ellis has helped us out too maybe not as often as he's helped you but still you make it seem like he isn't doing anything to help out plus it's not his fault when he gets into trouble."

"Boy, if yer really stressed about the fact that he just wants yer help then why do you help him?" Coach asked clearly getting annoyed with how Nick was acting as he crossed his arms and looked at him.

Nick snorted

"Are you serious, Coach? If I don't help him he'll just have a fucking fit! That's the only reason why I've been helping him so that he doesn't go and get us killed!"

Ellis winced.

"Nick, Ellis isn't like that so stop talking about him like that! He can probably hear you!" Rochelle said glaring angrily at him.

"I don't care if he does! I know that you care about what happens to him, but I certainly don't!" Nick replied.

"NICK!"

"Hey I'm not going to go and get myself killed just because that stupid hick is throwing a temper tantrum! All we have to do is get to the bridge and then we'll be out of here so I'll just have to put up with him until then!" Nick said.

'So long as the pilot isn't a zombie.' Nick thought.

Ellis quietly went back upstairs and closed the door behind him. He felt awful after hearing what Nick had to say about him. All this time he kept telling himself that he loved him, but in reality he was just being selfish and possessive.

'I don't blame him for thinkin that way about me. If I really loved him I wouldn't have been so possessive by making him help only me.' Ellis thought to himself as he made his way to one of the beds.

Rochelle sighed as she started making her way towards the stairs. Before she went up she turned back to look at Nick.

"I think you're making a huge mistake with how you're treating Ellis, Nick. He loves you." Rochelle said as she looked at him sadly.

Nick snorted.

"Great the kid who doesn't know how to shut up likes me just fucking great."

Rochelle was going to say something, but instead turned to Coach not wanting to continue talking about Ellis.

"Will you guys be alright down here?" Rochelle asked.

"Don't worry about us baby girl. We'll be alright." Coach replied as he positioned himself on the floor.

"Ok. If you can't sleep you can switch places with me if you want." Rochelle said.

Coach smiled at her.

"There's no need for that, but thanks for the offer, Ro." Coach replied as he watched her head upstairs.

Once he heard the door close Coach turned his attention to Nick who was positioning himself next to the stairs.

"What the hell is wrong with you, boy?" Coach asked angrily.

Nick sighed and looked at him annoyed.

"Coach, I don't want to talk Ellis for the rest of the night alright? Let's just get some sleep."

"Answer me this then; do you really hate Ellis that much?"

"What do you think?"

"I think that yer just bein an asshole who doesn't want to admit what he really feels." Coach told him glaring at him.

"I'm going to make this perfectly clear when we ran into those other survivors I was more then willing to trade Ellis for Louis that's how much I don't like him." Nick replied.

Coach shook his head.

"If you really didn't like him Nick you wouldn't have helped him at all."

Nick was about to respond but Coach cut him off.

"The boy wouldn't have gotten so upset that he'd alert more zombies to us. The most he would probably do is just stay quiet. It's funny how you think he's selfish when all he's done is help you and all he wants is for you to help him what's so bad about that? He's also helped Ro and I out too so as far as I see it he isn't selfish."

Nick shook his head.

"You only see it that way because he isn't always running to you to help him."

"I wonder, Nick what would you do if something happened to the boy."

Nick didn't say anything as he turned on his side to face the other way.

"Night, Coach."

Coach shook his head and lied down on his side.

'He's gunna regret it watch and see.' Coach thought.

Author's notes: It's been a long time since I last wrote a story. Well technically this isn't going to be as long as the other ones so it's not really a story. Reasons I took so long to make another one was mostly because I was still trying to come up with good ideas. Sorry if this first chapter came out kinda sucky it's really hard to come up with a beginning to a story. I can come up with parts to a story easily but a beginning not so much. Trust me the parts I came up for this one is mostly near the end so I know where I want to end up at least.


	2. Guilt

Silent Lucidity

By esmtz

Once everybody had woken up the next morning they quickly grabbed themselves ammo, health kits, and whatever else they could get their hands on that was in the safe room. Ellis noticed right away that Nick seemed to have calmed down since last night since he hadn't said anything about him (or he just didn't want to say it in front of Ellis) to Coach or Rochelle.

"Y'all just about ready?" Coach asked as he grabbed some pain pills and turned to look at the others.

"I'm good." Rochelle replied as Nick just nodded.

"What about you youngin?" Coach asked turning to look at Ellis who picked up an adrenaline shot.

"Ready as I'm ever goin to be I guess." Ellis said as he pocketed the adrenaline and walked towards the door where Rochelle and Nick were already waiting.

"Ok now try not to get too far from the group y'all." Coach told them as Nick opened the door.

Nick rolled his eyes as he stepped outside.

"The only one likely to do that, Coach is Ellis." Nick said.

Ellis looked at him slightly hurt while Rochelle just glared at him.

"Nick…" Rochelle warned him.

"Don't worry I'll just stay behind y'all." Ellis replied as he followed Coach and Rochelle out of the safe house.

Nick snorted.

"Since when have you ever stayed behind us? From what I remember you would always rush in and get yourself into trouble." Nick told him, "and then you would always get me to heal you afterwards."

Ellis looked at him even more hurt.

"Ok I get it. I promise I won't get ahead of y'all, Nick."

"Ellis, sweetie don't worry about it. Nick's just being an asshole as always." Rochelle said smiling at him and glaring once again at Nick.

"Talking to him like that Rochelle is only going to encourage him to get into more trouble." Nick replied as he looked at her.

Coach sighed.

"Y'all there's zombies out here and I'd appreciate it if y'all helped me out here."

Ellis, Nick, and Rochelle hadn't realized until just then that the zombies had been trying to get at them, but Coach had been holding them off.

"Sorry, Coach." Rochelle said as they killed the ones that Coach had shoved away.

As soon as they made their way past the zombies they found themselves looking at a park. Coach grunted.

"If this was supposed to be a park wouldn't they have at least put up sumethin for the youngins to play on?" Coach said as he saw nothing but tons of grass and bushes.

"That really isn't important right now, Coach." Nick said as he killed a few zombies that were in front of them.

"I know that." Coach said glaring at him.

"Let's just get going." Rochelle said as she started walking.

Coughing was heard a long with growling and something else. Just before they could see where it was at the smoker's tongue wrapped around Rochelle and dragged her towards it. The guys quickly caught up and saw that it had been hiding right on top of the gazebo and Nick quickly killed it.

Rochelle sighed.

"Thanks."

Growling was heard coming closer as they fought off more zombies that were right there next to the gazebo.

"Pay attention y'all I hear a hunter and a jockey." Coach said shooting off heads and limbs of zombies that were attacking him.

Ellis stayed close to Coach because now a horde of zombies started making their way towards them and Coach just happened to be closest to him. He started shooting at them and once they got close he shoved them away, but the moment after he did that the hunter pounced on him.

"Get it off!" Ellis yelled.

Coach shoved the zombies away from himself and quickly turned and started shooting at the hunter. He managed to kill it before it could do any serious damage to Ellis. As soon as Rochelle and Nick were done taking care of the zombies that were in their war they went to help out Ellis and Coach.

"Ellis, sweetie are you alright?" Rochelle asked worriedly.

Ellis nodded.

"Yeah thanks, Coach." He said turning his head to look at him.

"No problem. Did anybody see where the jockey went?" Coach asked looking around.

"Looks like somebody killed it." Ellis said as he saw that it was dead right behind Nick.

Nick shrugged.

"I didn't see it. Probably just decided to attack without jumping stupid idiot." Nick said.

"It's funny how sometimes the infected are so stupid!" Ellis said grinning and shaking his head.

Nick sighed as he looked at him.

"It's not funny, Ellis. This is exactly why you're always getting yourself into trouble because you never take anything seriously."

Ellis frowned as he looked back at him.

"I do take this seriously. I just think it's funny when the infected are stupid like when they accidentally kill themselves." Ellis replied remembering the one time that a charger tried to charge at him, but instead it ended up charging itself out of a window and it fell quite a distance until it hit the ground.

"That only happened once and you were lucky that the charger didn't take you with it." Nick told him.

"Well whenever sumethin happens to one of you I do take it seriously. I don't just stand around laughin y'know."

"No you don't because all you do is run ahead acting like a five year old killing everything that's in your sights without a second thought to our safety." Nick glared at him.

Ellis looked at him in shock.

"What are you…"

"The only times you've actually noticed when one of us was hurt was when a tank was headed our way and you finally decide to come back towards us or when someone alerts a witch. Other then that all you've been doing was just killing everything like it was a game to you!" Nick said clearly getting agitated with him.

Ellis bit his lip and looked away. He hated to admit it, but he did kind of think of this situation as being just a game to him, but he wasn't going to admit that to them especially not to Nick. He didn't know what to say so he just stood there and let Nick attack him. Rochelle went up to him and tried to get him to stop.

"Nick, stop it. He doesn't deserve this." Rochelle said looking at him.

"Like hell he doesn't. He doesn't even know how many times we've all gotten hurt just because he thinks its fun to alert more zombies to us!" Nick replied looking at her.

Ellis looked up in alarm.

"What?" Ellis's voice was getting quieter.

"Because of you, overalls Rochelle has alerted a witch three times, Coach it was just once, and me…" Nick shook his head glaring angrily at him, "I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've alerted her just to make sure you were ok."

Ellis winced.

"How is that possible? I saw when someone alerted the witch and it wasn't that often so why…?"

"How stupid can you be? Most of the time you were too busy yelling and shooting to realize that we had either taken pain pills, adrenaline or managed to heal up by the time you were done and came back to us." Nick replied as Ellis rubbed the back of his neck and looked away again feeling completely ashamed of himself, "Ellis, how old are you?"

"23."

"You're 23? Because you definitely don't act like it. Why don't you grow the fuck up for once so that way the next time that this happens you wont make another group of people suffer like this." Nick told him before he started walking again.

Rochelle looked at Ellis sadly and whispered 'it's ok' before following after Nick. Coach sighed shaking his head.

"Don't worry about it, boy. Nick's always been an asshole so I think it's just his screwed up way of showing that he cares." Coach said before following after them.

Ellis felt like he was going to throw up as he slowly followed after Coach.

'Nick's right. If I don't even care about his, Coach, and Ro's safety how am I supposed to expect them to help me out? I'm just gunna end up gettin them killed.'

Ellis looked at the ground sadly because now he had proof that he didn't deserve Nick helping him.

'I've helped them before, but it just seems like I cause more trouble then I actually help. I'm sorry, Nick. I thought I loved you, but if I did I would never have put my life first above yours.'

Ellis winced as he thought that knowing that he was never going to forgive himself for acting that way because he could have gotten him (and Coach and Ro) killed and if Nick ends up dying because of him he would know that he didn't deserve to live.

Author's note: I was going to wait till Tuesday to write this chapter but I changed my mind. I'm sorry if I don't update too often because for one I'm anxiously awaiting Gears of War 3 to come out and school is going to start again soon so I'm gunna be a little bit busy. I'd like to thank those who reviewed, favorited, or added my story to story alert because you guys really got me into writing another chapter. I hope this story turns out the way I want it too. The only part I have set in my mind really is near the end so this part just came out when I started writing. Let me know if there's any mistakes in this story so that I can correct it, unless you're talking about 'doin' or 'yers' basically when Coach or Ellis is talking I did that on purpose for their accent which I'm not so good at but I try.


	3. Worried

Silent Lucidity

By esmtz

By the time they made their way past the park and through a small alley, they felt the ground start to shake and heard a loud roar coming from just ahead of them.

"Shit!" Nick yelled as the tank came into view just as the zombies started rushing at them.

"Get back y'all!" Coach replied as he threw the molotov in the direction of the oncoming tank and zombies and watched as it lit a few of them on fire.

"Nice now concentrate your fire on the tank!" Nick said as it went through the fire and continued heading straight towards them.

"Run to that trailer over there!" Rochelle said pointing at it as they started running away from it while shooting at it at the same time.

The tank was clearly in pain as it picked up a rock and hurled it towards them. It barely missed Rochelle as they ran past the ammo that was on a table next to them. When it missed it started running after them again.

"I can't believe that thing is still chasin us!" Ellis yelled as he used the entire clip shooting at it before having to reload.

"The tank should be on its last legs by now. Just keep runnin! We're almost there!" Coach replied as he also reloaded.

Just as they reached the trailer the tank managed to catch up and it picked up another rock and threw it at them again. Coach and Rochelle made it to the trailer and when Nick looked back he saw that it was headed for Ellis who was only a few seconds away from getting inside, but the rock was just about to hit him.

'Fuck!' Nick thought as he made a grab for Ellis's arm and pulled him close to him just as the tank died and the rock just barely missed him.

Ellis started turning red as he realized that Nick had not only saved him, but he was almost pressed up against Nick that it made him a little uncomfortable as he struggled with himself to not make more out of this then what it was.

"Uh thanks, Nick." Ellis said at last as he looked at him.

Nick sighed as he let go of him.

"Whatever. Just keep up next time alright?" Nick said as he went inside the trailer.

Ellis looked at him confused. Didn't he want him to stay behind them? Not having the time to think about it he just shrugged and followed after him. As soon as they closed the door Rochelle and Nick grabbed bottles of pain pills that were on the table next to them.

"Well now looks like we're gunna hafta turn the alarm off once we open this door." Coach said.

"What makes you say that, Coach?" Nick asked looking at him.

"Cause it's says it right here, Nick. Right next to the door." Coach replied turning to look at him as he moved to the side so he could see the paper on the wall.

"You didn't have to move, Coach." Nick sighed.

"Yeah? Well it looked like you didn't believe me." Coach told him.

"Boys lets just get going. The sooner we get to the safe house the better." Rochelle told them as she moved in front of Coach to open the door.

"Wait Ro. Do y'all hear that?" Ellis asked.

They all stayed quiet for a few seconds. Rochelle sighed.

"Yeah I hear it." She replied.

"I think I'd better be the first one out, Ro cause I got a better chance at killin that witch before she can get anybody." Coach told her.

Rochelle nodded and moved to the side.

"I'm just about getting sick and tired of alerting that fucking witch." Nick said angrily making Ellis wince.

"Just be careful when you kill her, Coach. If she starts attackin she's gunna alert a lot more zombies to us. Plus I think I can hear a charger and a spitter out here somewhere." Ellis said as he heard noises coming from outside.

"As long as I don't miss we should be fine." Coach said as he opened the door and stepped outside.

"Of course we gotta run around these fences to get to the alarm up there." Rochelle said as she saw it just past the fences.

"Y'all the witch is right there." Ellis said as he watched the witch turn the corner sobbing.

"Why is it that most of the time she's gotta be in the fucking way?" Nick asked as they got closer to her.

"Take care of the zombies behind us y'all." Coach said as he got closer to the witch who still didn't notice his presence until he got so close that he was just about to touch her and her sobs started to turn into growls.

Zombies started to climb the fences to get at them while Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis tried to kill as many zombies as they could get.

"They're coming from behind us!" Rochelle said as she turned and saw that a few more were trying to sneak behind them.

The witch let out a loud scream as Coach took care of her with one shot to the head.

"Start runnin!" Coach yelled as he helped to kill the zombies and they all started running.

Just as they were about to turn the next corner where another table with guns on it was at the charger showed up and charged directly into them sending Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis flying and started pummeling Coach into the ground.

"Y'all gotta shoot this thing!" he yelled as it kept slamming him into the ground.

The others quickly got up and started shooting at it quickly killing it. Coach took some of his pain pills as they started running again. Out of the corner of Ellis's eye he saw the spitter right next to the ladder to get up to the alarm spit at them and he quickly killed it, but not before separating him from the others as they kept running.

'Ah shit, man.' Ellis thought to himself as he knew that it would take a couple of seconds for the acid to vanish.

He turned around and saw that the zombies were still coming and he tried to kill whatever he could with his gun before he realized that he was almost out of ammo. Ellis had no choice but to shove the zombies away and to switch to his pistols. He could barely make out Coach's voice as he said 'get the alarm, Ro'. Before she could even get up the ladder a boomer showed up and before even realizing it Nick killed it just as he and Coach caught up with Rochelle sending the vile on all three of them.

"Goddammit!" Nick yelled as it attracted the zombies towards them.

This time when Ellis shoved the zombies away they turned their attention toward the others and started climbing the fences to get to them. As Ellis killed them he hadn't realized that a smoker was right behind him on the other side of the fence and its tongue immediately wrapped around him and pulled him towards the fence and started suffocating him. Ellis tried calling for help, but its tongue was wrapped so tight around him that he couldn't breathe. He tried gasping for breath, but he couldn't get any air inside his body. He was starting to feel light headed as his vision started to darken and he could barely make out Nick's voice.

"ELLIS!"

The vomit was starting to wear off, but the zombies still kept coming at them. Once he was able to get the zombies off of him Nick aimed his sights at the smoker's head just as a hunter pounced on Rochelle.

"Ro!" Coach yelled as he quickly shoved the hunter off of her and continued shoving the zombies a long with the hunter until it died, "You alright baby girl?" he asked.

"Yeah." Rochelle said as she got up and started climbing the ladder to get to the alarm, "I'll get the alarm."

Ellis was just about to lose consciousness when Nick managed to kill the smoker with a headshot. He fell to the floor with the tongue still wrapped around him tightly as he struggled to keep his eyes open. He barely heard as Rochelle turned off the alarm and someone rushed to his side just as he lost consciousness. Nick had discarded his weapon and climbed over the fence to quickly get to Ellis. He started to untie the tongue that was wrapped tightly around him as Nick looked at him anxious. Once he discarded it he looked at Ellis and put a hand on his shoulder and gently started shaking him.

"Ellis?" Nick asked holding his breath as he leaned closer to Ellis to make sure he was breathing.

Nick sighed with relief when he felt him breathing.

'Thank God.' Nick thought.

"Nick? Is he..?" Rochelle said quietly as she and Coach walked towards them.

"He's going to be fine. He's just unconscious right now." Nick replied.

Coach looked at him as Nick turned so he could carry Ellis on his back.

"Are you guys good on ammo?" Nick asked as he slowly stood up.

"I could use a refill, but I think it can last until we get to the safe house." Rochelle replied.

"I totally need some ammo." Coach said.

Nick nodded towards his gun on the floor.

"Go ahead and take mine. There's not much, but it should do for now so long as we don't encounter anymore problems."

"Well ok. Nick, are you sure you don't want me to carry him?" Coach asked.

Nick shook his head.

"I already got him so let's go before more zombies show up." Nick said as he started walking with Rochelle walking in front of him.

Coach raised an eyebrow and shook his head.

'One minute he hates him next minute he worries about him. Can't the boy make up his mind?' Coach asked as he followed behind them.

Author's note: Ok so I started school which means basically I'll write when I get the chance. I might not add a new chapter every week so just a heads up. I can try, but I can't guarantee anything. Plus the weathers kind of turned to shit here because there's been flooding from too much rain that's been raining for the past couple of weeks and kind of surprised that it didn't rain yesterday or today so yay finally it stopped I hope. First there was fires and now flooding and apparently an earthquake somewhere here in New Mexico which I don't recall has happened before but then I don't watch the news.


	4. Ellis Apologizes

Silent Lucidity

By esmtz

Ellis groaned as he slowly opened his eyes and looked around. He saw that Rochelle was sitting right next to him and Coach and Nick were standing guard at the exit of the safe room. Rochelle smiled down at him as she squeezed his hand.

"Ellis, sweetie you're alright. We've been worried sick about you." Rochelle told him as she kissed him on his forehead.

"What happened?" Ellis asked as he slowly started to sit up.

"A smoker got you right after the boomer vomited all over us. Nick managed to kill it just as soon as he was able to push the zombies away from him." Rochelle told him, "He's the one who brought you here."

Ellis looked surprised at Nick who was glancing back at him and shrugged.

"It's not a big deal." Nick said.

"Not a big deal? Boy…" Coach said looking at him.

Nick turned back to glare at him. Coach sighed and shook his head before turning back to face Ellis and Rochelle.

"Y'all ready to get goin now?" Coach asked.

Ellis nodded as he started to get up wincing slightly as he did so.

"Are you sure you're up for this, Ellis? You look like you're still in pain. That smoker really had its tongue wrapped tightly around you." Rochelle said hesitating as to whether she should help him or not.

"I'll be fine, Ro. We should get goin." Ellis told her as he went over to the table and picked up a gun.

"Well ok…" Rochelle replied as she went to get herself some ammo.

"We better hurry before the sun goes down." Coach said as he looked outside.

"I agree with Coach. Wouldn't want to fight off the zombies during the night." Nick said.

Ellis sighed.

"Sorry y'all."

"It ain't yer fault, boy. At least we got a chance to rest for a bit before headin out again." Coach told him as he opened the safe room door.

When they got outside they saw a few zombies just randomly walking around until they noticed that they were there and they started running towards them. They were easily taken care of as they started walking. Coach stayed just slightly ahead of the group as they passed a trash can with its contents on fire and saw that in front of them was an empty store.

"Look around for either a molotov or a pipe bomb. Ro and I will look in here while y'all look upstairs." Coach instructed as he looked at Nick and Ellis.

Ellis turned slightly red while Nick just glared at Coach.

"Coach…" Nick growled.

Coach rolled his eyes.

"It'll only be a few seconds before Ro and I follow you so just do it." Coach told him as he and Rochelle entered the small store.

Nick mumbled something as he made his way upstairs with Ellis quickly following behind him.

"Hey, Nick wait." Ellis said as they entered a small room that was just above the store.

Nick sighed as he looked around.

"Yeah?" Nick asked as he saw that weapons were on the floor next to him and he went to the back to check in the other two smaller rooms.

"I just wanted to say thanks y'know for savin my life." Ellis said rubbing the back of his head as he watched Nick looking at the rooms.

Nick found a molotov right next to a shotgun that was on the floor in the bathroom and he picked up the molotov and pocketed it before turning back to face Ellis.

"You've never thanked me before, overalls." Nick told him raising an eyebrow a little surprised as to why all of a sudden Ellis is thanking him.

Ellis started feeling uncomfortable as he lowered his arm.

"I know it's just that after constantly savin my ass I just thought that maybe you were gettin tired of helpin me out all the time." Ellis replied looking at him before looking down at the floor, "I'm sorry that I never said how much I appreciated you helpin me and I'm really sorry how many times I've put you in danger including Coach and Ro."

Nick looked at him completely taken aback.

'Did he hear my conversation with Rochelle last night?' Nick thought to himself as he started feeling guilty.

"What brought this on all of a sudden, Ellis?" Nick asked.

"Nuthin really I mean I know that you don't wanna hafta look after me like all the time so…" Ellis glanced back up at him.

'He heard it. He had to of.' Nick thought.

"Look I'm sorry if that's what you really think, but…"

"Don't apologize, Nick. I get it. I really do. I guess if I was in yer position I would have gotten sick and tired of helpin that person out too." Ellis told him as he raised his head to look directly at him.

Nick looked at him in surprise.

"Ellis…"

"Nick, you don't hafta help me if you don't want to. I know that we're supposed to be a team so don't worry about helpin me. You can just help out Ro and Coach since they don't get into as much trouble as I do and one of them can help me out."

Nick hadn't expected for those words to come out of Ellis's mouth. He just stood there shocked and before he could say anything Coach and Rochelle showed.

"We didn't find anythin downstairs. Did y'all find anythin up here?" Coach asked looking at them.

"Uh yeah I found a molotov and more ammo." Nick said as both he and Ellis looked at Coach.

"Well that's sumethin I guess." Coach replied.

"Hey guys? I hear a Jockey." Rochelle said.

As they walked out of the room and turned the corner they saw that it was on top of the huge gas truck that was blocking the road and was trying to get to them. They also saw a bunch of zombies heading straight for them in the direction that they were going to go. The jockey tried jumping on Rochelle, but it was killed before it could latch itself on to her.

"Everybody jump on the truck!" Coach said and once they did that they started shooting at the zombies.

"Spitter!" Nick yelled as he saw that it was behind them and it had spit towards them.

Nick quickly killed it before jumping off the truck to avoid the acid. Coach, Rochelle, and Ellis quickly followed and started shoving and shooting the zombies that were still coming. Once they were past the small horde they kept making their way through the houses until they made their way to the sewers killing a charger and hunter on the way.

"Ok there is no way I'm going in there." Nick said looking totally disgusted.

"It's not like we have a choice, Nick." Rochelle told him also horrified at the idea of jumping down there.

"Y'all I would like to get movin if you don't mind." Coach said as he started getting agitated.

Ellis got closer to the hole and jumped in. Nick sighed and muttered 'goddammit' before following after Ellis. Rochelle went next and Coach went right after her. There was a loud noise coming from just ahead of them and Ellis started shooting until he heard it explode.

"Sounds like it was just a boomer." Rochelle said.

As they got closer they saw its remains.

"Yeah definitely a boomer." She said.

"Y'all I see a ladder." Ellis said as they shot at a few zombies that were down there.

"Start climbin it youngin!" Coach told thim.

Once they were all up they were horrified to see that there was a lot of alarm cars they could accidentally set off if they shot or hit any one of them.

"Watch where yer shootin now." Coach said.

That was the least of their worries as the ground started shaking and they heard the loud roar coming from a tank. They watched in horror as it sent a car flying.

"Shit! There's too many cars out here that it can throw at us!" Nick said as zombies started rushing at them again.

"Nick, throw that molotov at it!" Coach told him as the tank kept throwing cars either towards them or out of its way.

Once it got close enough towards them Nick threw it, but instead of lighting it on fire it missed lighting the zombies on fire and the tank kept making its way toward him.

"NICK!" Ellis yelled as zombies surrounded him, Rochelle, and Coach and a few were trying to surround Nick.

Nick was forced to back up until he hit the wall and the tank had him completely cornered.

"Shit!" Nick said as he tried pushing the zombies away from him, but the tank was too fast and it started hitting him.

Ellis was wide eyed and started to panic when he heard Nick screaming.

'I have to do sumethin!' Ellis thought to himself as he pushed the zombies away from him and tried making his way towards Nick and the tank.

Rochelle pulled out the bile jar she had found just before they went into the sewer and tossed it away from them. Once they pushed the zombies away they switched their target to the smell and while they were distracted Ellis, Rochelle, and Coach focused their attacks on the tank. Ellis got closer to it and finally got its attention as it changed its target and switched to Ellis. Its swung its arm sending Ellis (since he was too close to it) flying and hitting one of the white cars. Just as it was going to head towards him it fell forward and died. Ellis quickly got up and ran towards Nick completely ignoring the pain he was feeling on his chest and fell down next to him. Rochelle stood right behind him as Coach quickly took care of the zombies before the smell went away. He also killed a smoker that was hiding on top of a broken bridge.

"Nick?" Ellis whispered as he leaned closer to him and put his hand gently on his shoulder.

Nick was lying on his side and his eyes were closed. He was still breathing, but he looked like he got messed up pretty bad. Ellis started to tear up as he was relieved that he was alive, but also felt terrible that he couldn't stop the tank from almost killing him.

'I couldn't do a thing to help him. What the hell kind of team mate am I?' Ellis thought as what Nick said before hit him 'I can't believe I just ran off and left him vulnerable. Of course every time I got into trouble he always helped me and now when I got a chance to help him back I don't?'

Ellis clenched his right hand tightly and gritted his teeth. Nick started to stir making him sigh with relief.

"Nick?" Ellis asked again.

Nick slowly opened his eyes and saw that Ellis was crying.

"Ellis…?" Nick whispered unable to ask what was wrong as Ellis slightly smiled at him and was about to help him on his feet.

"Don't talk, Nick. I'm gunna help you get to the safe house alright? Just hold on to me." Ellis told him as he helped him sit up and then wrapped his left arm around him and pulled Nick's right arm over his shoulder so he could fully support him.

"Looks like it's just you and me protectin them baby girl." Coach said as he looked around making sure that there wasn't any signs of the infected.

"Let's just hope the safe house isn't too far from here." Rochelle replied.

Author's note: Less then a month until Gears of War 3 comes out I can't wait! ^_^ So far I've been able to make new chapters on Tuesday nights. I could do it on weekends too but that's when I prefer to do my homework last minute so unless I end up getting real busy or I don't get any reviews then I probably wont update for awhile. That's another reason why I wait at least a week to give people time to read the chapter and possibly review it. I always love reading reviews unless of course they're bad but I hardly ever get those. I swear Valve is taking forever with Cold Stream! I'll be busy with Gears by the time that DLC comes out! T_T


	5. Protective

Silent Lucidity

By esmtz

Coach and Rochelle were careful to not alert any of the cars as they slowly made their way past them looking around to make sure that the infected weren't about to suddenly show up and attack them.

"It's all clear up here!" Rochelle yelled as she made it to the ladder.

"You doin alright?" Coach asked as soon as Nick and Ellis caught up.

"I just got my ass handed to me by a fucking tank how do you think I'm doing?" Nick replied wincing in pain as he clutched tightly to his stomach and shut his eyes in pain.

"Nick, I got you alright. I'm not gunna let you go you understand me?" Ellis said as he looked at him worriedly.

"Um, Ellis, sweetie you're going to have to for just a few seconds." Rochelle told him as she nodded at the ladder.

Ellis looked towards the ladder and winced.

"Nick, do you think you can climb that ladder?" Ellis asked looking at him.

Nick snorted.

"Of course I can climb the ladder. How stupid do you think I am?"

"No it's just yer in a lot of pain…and yer bleedin!" Ellis said wide eyed as he saw that blood was coming from the side of his stomach.

Nick sighed as Ellis made him sit on the floor with his back against the wall.

"I'm fine, overalls."

"No yer not, Nick! I'm gunna heal you alright just sit still." Ellis told him as he saw him try to stand up.

"Nick, you might wanna take some of yer pain pills while he's healin you." Coach told him.

"I said I'm fine." Nick growled.

Ignoring Nick Ellis took off his jacket and lifted his shirt to reveal that there was a gash right on the side of Nick's stomach. Nick started turning red just before Rochelle looked at it and smiled slightly.

"It doesn't look too bad. Ellis, sweetie he'll be fine until we get to the safe house." Rochelle told him.

"What are you talkin about, Ro? Nick's bleedin pretty bad here!" Ellis said looking at her before turning his attention back to Nick as he removed the first aid kit from his back, took out the contents, and started cleaning and stitching up the wound.

Ok so maybe the wound wasn't as bad as he thought, but that didn't stop Ellis from worrying about the fact that Nick was bleeding and that he had taken a pretty good beating from the tank.

"Ellis…"

"Here hold on to yer shirt for a few minutes alright? I just need to stitch it." Ellis replied not taking his eyes off the gash.

Soon as he was done Nick let go of his shirt and started putting his jacket back. He was still slightly red as he slowly stood back up.

"Ok now I'm goin to head on up first then you'll follow after me alright, Nick?" Coach said.

"Coach, I'll be fine alright?" Nick said as he rolled his eyes.

Nick shook slightly when Ellis suddenly grabbed his arm. He looked at him and saw to his surprise that Ellis was trying to give him his adrenaline.

"Overalls I don't…"

"I know you have pain pills, but this will work a lot better to get you movin. Just take it." Ellis said holding it out to him.

"Ellis, don't you need that? The tank hit you pretty hard also." Rochelle said.

This alarmed Nick as he looked at him completely worried.

"Ellis…"

Ellis shook his head.

"I don't need it besides you could use it a lot more then I can." Ellis told him.

"Ellis, what did the tank do to you?" Nick asked looking at him seriously.

"Nuthin. He just hit me and I slammed my back against one of them white cars." Ellis responded tears starting to show in his eyes as he realized then just how much pain he was in. Nick was about to say something but Ellis cut him off, "Just take it, Nick please."

Nick looked at him concerned as he saw that he had tears in his eyes and reluctantly took the adrenaline from him.

"Ellis, really you don't have to do this for me." Nick said looking at him sadly.

"Yeah I do, Nick." Ellis told him.

'For how much you've done for me I'd be more then willin to give up my life for yers.' Ellis thought to himself.

Nick winced as he now knew that Ellis did take everything he had said to heart. There was an awkward silence before Coach finally broke it.

"We ain't got the time standin here talkin all day. Let's get a move on. Will you at least be able to walk, Nick?" Coach asked.

"Yeah."

"Good. Let's go." Coach said as he started climbing the ladder.

Nick took one last look at Ellis before following after Coach. Rochelle walked up to Ellis and gave him her pain pills.

"Here, Ellis. I can't bear to see you in pain." Rochelle said looking at him worriedly.

"I'll be alright thanks, Ro." Ellis said smiling at her as he wiped away the tears that were about to fall down his face.

"I mean first the smoker and now the tank. Sweetie maybe you should let me help you." Rochelle said.

"If anyone needs help it's gunna be Nick. Besides, Ro you've helped me out a lot before so…"

"Hey I'm not at all like Nick so you can ask me for help anytime." Rochelle told him smiling at him.

Ellis smiled back at her and nodded.

"Well now before we fall behind." Rochelle said as she waited for Ellis to climb the ladder and then followed after him.

Once they got up they saw that Coach and Nick were right next to an ambulance and were stocking up on ammo.

"Y'all there's some ammo here if you need it." Coach told them.

"You can never have enough ammo." Rochelle said as she went and swapped her shotgun with an assault rifle.

Nick looked at Ellis as he took some of Rochelle's pain pills and pocketed the rest.

"You good with ammo there, boy?" Coach asked looking at Ellis.

"I'll be good until we get to the safe house." Ellis replied.

"Ok well then let's go." Coach said.

Just as they started to cross the bridge it suddenly exploded right in front of them causing them to jump out of surprise and horror.

"Holy…" Ellis started.

"Well that ain't good." Coach said.

"You think?" Nick said sarcastically.

"Well we're not crossing the bridge now, but it looks like we have another way to go." Rochelle said as she got closer to where the bridge had exploded revealing a cemetery just ahead of them along with more zombies.

"Well let's start killing people." Nick said as he started shooting at the zombies that were below them.

A boomer was heard coming from somewhere nearby as they looked around for it before jumping down.

"It's probably right underneath us." Ellis said.

"I'll get it." Coach said jumping down and turning to see if it was indeed underneath them, "It ain't here."

Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis followed after him and just as they started heading towards the cemetery the boomer showed up right behind them (having hidden itself inside the small building) and vomited all over Rochelle and Ellis.

"Ugh gross!" Rochelle yelled as suddenly a horde of zombies rushed towards them.

Nick quickly turned and pushed the boomer away before killing it. He then turned his attention to the zombies that were now attacking Ellis and Rochelle. He started shooting at them and with all the noise they didn't hear as a jockey snuck up on them and jumped on top of Coach.

"Get it off!" Coach yelled as it started steering him away.

"Coach!" Nick yelled as he ran after him, but winced when he felt pain coming from his entire body.

Rochelle and Ellis tried their best to shove and kill as many zombies as they could, but there was just too many. Before they could get too far Nick quickly killed the jockey and then turned when he heard Ellis scream and ran back towards them; injecting himself with the adrenaline in the process. It only took them a few seconds before they finally killed all the zombies that had been on them.

"Ellis, sweetie are you alright?" Rochelle asked as she looked at him extremely worried since he now looked like was about to collapse as he held tightly to his stomach completely in pain.

She was about to put an arm around him, but Nick beat her to it and looked at him.

"Ellis, let me have a look at it." Nick said.

Ellis shook his head.

"I'm fine. I'll be alright let's just get to the safe room." Ellis replied as he slowly let go of his stomach and looked up at him.

"Bullshit! I'm having a look." Nick told him as he quickly sat him down and lifted his shirt. He winced when he saw just how bruised his stomach and chest was, "Shit, Ellis…"

"Don't worry about it ok, Nick? I'll make it let's just get goin before more infected show up." Ellis told him.

"I'm not leaving you like this!"

"It's just bruises, Nick. I promise I'll be ok after awhile alright? I just need a place to rest."

Nick was about to respond but Coach cut him off.

"Nick, now is not the time to help him. He ain't dyin, plus he ain't bleedin as far as I can tell so for now he doesn't need help. We really should be focusin on gettin to the safe house y'all instead of stayin out here."

Rochelle bit her lip and nodded.

"Coach is right, Nick. The sooner we get to the safe house the better. Plus there's nothing we can really do about bruises and you're hurt too so I also think it would be best to just get to the safe house so both you and Ellis can rest."

"If you need to take yer pain pills." Coach said as he started walking.

Ellis slowly stood up and took some more of his pain pills before looking at Nick.

"Nick, I already told you that you don't have to look after me anymore if you don't want. I don't see why you would still feel like you need to help me even after I told you that. It's not like I'd cause a scene if you didn't help me."

"That's not it, Ellis I just...you took care of me." Nick told him.

"Nick, you took care of me a hell of a lot of times. As far as I'm concerned I should be helping you now not the other way around. I haven't helped you as many times as you've helped me so I owe you and…I really want to help you alright." Ellis smiled at him, "Anyway we're almost out of this so just focus on keepin yerself and the others safe alright and if I need help Rochelle can help me. She's been good at helpin me out before too so don't worry about me anymore."

Nick was speechless as he watched Ellis start to turn around to follow Rochelle and Coach. He stopped and turned back to face him again.

"How are you feelin? You gunna be alright?" Ellis asked.

"Yeah I'm in the same predicament as you sport." Nick told him.

"What about yer wound?"

"It'll be fine. You did a good job stitching it up."

Ellis smiled slightly at him and nodded

"Boys can you please hurry up?" Rochelle yelled out.

"We're comin!" Ellis yelled back as he started making his way towards her.

Nick looked at him still unable to figure out why he couldn't seem to stop worrying about the kid as he followed after him.

Author's note: Ok depending on how many reviews I get for this chapter I might wait a little longer before I update the story again. I've been thinking lately on the part that I really wanted to write for this chapter and I keep trying my best to not change it but I know that its going to have to fit into the story somehow so it might be different then what I originally thought. Also I've been trying hard to not stress on school work but im taking Astronomy and Management class and man im mostly worried about Management because for one I have to do some volunteer work and two I have to work on a group project which I hate and Im trying to not put myself under so much pressure. Its only an 8 week course and it feels like im being rushed. Plus I've never been good at being a leader so it sucks. Still waiting for Gears and the left 4 Dead 2 DLC to come out. I really hate waiting.


	6. Feelings

Silent Lucidity

By esmtz

As soon as they made their way past the cemetery they found that the safe house was just inside the building ahead of them and they quickly went inside. Once all of them were in Coach killed the zombies that had been following them and then barred the door shut.

"We made it." Rochelle sighed as she leaned against the wall next to the door and lowered herself to the floor.

"I'm getting sick and tired of having to deal with this shit all the time." Nick said as he sat down against the wall that was next to the table of guns and watched as Ellis made his way to the other end of the room and sat down.

"We'll be rescued soon enough." Coach told him as he sat opposite of Rochelle (next to the exit of the safe room and the tables with the ammo and health kits).

"Oh and what if it's another trap and the pilot or whoever happens to be a zombie? I seriously can't deal with that shit again." Nick said looking at Coach.

"Nick, please don't curse us." Rochelle said looking at him.

"She's right, Nick. It doesn't do us any good if we start worryin now about what might happen." Coach replied looking back at him.

'You're only saying that because we don't have a Plan B.' Nick thought to himself.

"Ellis, sweetie you've been awful quiet over there. Are you still hurting?" Rochelle asked as she looked over at him.

Ellis had been trying to find a comfy position to lie in so he could get to sleep. He looked up at her and smiled.

"I'm just tired that's all. Sorry if I made you worry." Ellis told her.

Rochelle looked at him hesitating for a few seconds before finally speaking again.

"It's just…I'm worried about you, Ellis and not just because you were hurt."

Ellis frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…first off I don't know maybe its just me, but you've been acting differently lately." Rochelle said.

"Now that you've mention it he hasn't been goin on ahead havin fun killin everythin in sight like he did before." Coach said frowning slightly.

"Really, Ro it's nuthin."

"Then tell me something. Why are you suddenly trying to stay closer to us or rather closer to Nick?" Rochelle asked watching as Ellis's whole face turned bright red.

"I don't know what yer talkin about."

"Oh yeah? Then why after the tank attacked Nick did you stay so close to him?"

Nick looked at him raising an eyebrow as Ellis started to stutter.

"H-He needed help. What was I supposed to do leave him?"

"You had healed him already and then you gave him you're adrenaline even though we all knew that you needed it."

Rochelle had a feeling that Ellis liked Nick, but she wasn't positive as she watched him rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Ellis sighed.

"He's helped me an awful lot before, Ro so I just thought that I could help him and make sure that he was gunna make it here to the safe house."

"Why do you even care, Overalls?" Nick asked making Ellis look at him, "Yeah sure there were a few times before that you helped me, but most of the time you were off killing the zombies and then I healed you whenever you got hurt and then Ro or Coach would heal me afterward. In fact I don't recall once where you were really worried about me."

"Worried about any of us for that matter." Coach whispered softly to himself, but it was loud enough for Nick and Rochelle to hear that they both glared at him.

Ellis swallowed as he looked at the floor not sure of what to say.

"It's funny," Rochelle said making Ellis look up at her, "I just noticed this, but he hasn't even brought up Keith in awhile."

Nick frowned as he realized that she was right. He couldn't even remember the last time any one of them had to tell him to be quiet.

"Why is that, Ellis?" Coach asked.

Now Nick really was curious as he looked at Ellis wanting to hear what his answer to that was. Ellis was hesitating. He really didn't want to have to tell the others why he hadn't brought up Keith and why he suddenly wanted to be closer to Nick. Yeah sure it was to make sure that he was ok and if he wasn't he could help him out, but there was another reason why he wanted to be close to him. Even if he told them it would just make him look like he was selfish (which of course he knows he is).

'They would probably just think that I want something from Nick. Hell I wouldn't blame him if that's what he thought too cause me worryin about him all of a sudden like this would be kinda suspicious.' Ellis thought to himself.

"I just figured that y'all didn't want to hear me talk about him so I stopped." Ellis finally said which was kind of true.

"Since when have you listened to us, Ellis?" Nick asked clearly not buying it, "Every time we told you to stop talking about him you always started up again later."

'To be honest it was getting really annoying having to listen to him talk about Keith all the damn time.' Nick thought to himself.

"Well I was gettin tired of bein told to shut up all the time." Ellis replied looking at him.

"Really? Because I didn't think that bothered you." Nick told him.

Rochelle looked from Ellis to Nick and then sighed.

"You know what? I'm just gunna go to bed." Rochelle said as she started to lie down.

"Same here. The both of you especially should get some sleep too. Hopefully the two of you won't be hurtin as much in the morning." Coach told them as also lied down and closed his eyes.

Ellis looked away from and lied down facing the wall. He didn't know if Nick was still staring at him or if he decided to go to sleep too as he felt butterflies in his stomach thinking that Nick was still looking at him.

'It's bad enough that I get on Nick's nerves, but if he ever found out that I had a thing for him I'm pretty sure he'd hate me for the rest of his life that is if he doesn't kill me.' Ellis thought to himself as he felt his face turn red, 'Why the hell do I even feel this way? Nick sure as hell doesn't like me and what about Keith?'

He didn't know how long he lied there. All he knew was that he couldn't get to sleep because of the fact that he couldn't stop thinking about Nick that he didn't realize that someone was right next to him and had put a hand on his shoulder making him jump.

"Holy…" Ellis said just before the hand went over his mouth to stop him from yelling.

"Be quiet, Ellis or you're going to wake Coach and Rochelle up." Nick whispered as he removed his hand from Ellis's mouth.

"What are you still doin awake, Nick?" Ellis asked as he looked at him.

"I couldn't get to sleep. So now why don't you tell me the truth this time instead of lying to my face, Ellis." Nick told him.

"What are you talkin about, Nick?" Ellis asked glad to know that it was dark enough that Nick couldn't see his face.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Overalls. I know you well enough to know that you wouldn't just suddenly stop talking about that fucking friend of yours. Plus you never got that worked up about me getting hurt before now start talking."

Ellis bit his lip and looked away.

"Ellis." Nick growled slightly.

"You always helped me before, Nick and I just felt real bad that I let you get hurt." Ellis replied quietly.

Nick grabbed the front of Ellis's shirt and pulled him towards him.

"Ellis, I'm not stupid. I saw how you looked at me. There was fear in your eyes almost as if you were…"

Ellis couldn't see the look on Nick's face as he just looked at him nervous. He swallowed as he asked.

"What, Nick?"

Nick took a breath in and then let it out.

"Nothing forget I said anything. I'm going to bed." Nick said as he let go of Ellis and started to turn around to go back to his side of the room.

Before he could stop himself Ellis reached out and grabbed Nick's arm stopping him from going anywhere.

"Just say it, Nick." Ellis told him as he felt the butterflies in his stomach again.

Nick shook his head.

"I'm probably just reading too much into this, Overalls, but…were you afraid that I was going to die?"

Ellis didn't say anything making Nick turn back to face him. As soon as he did Ellis threw himself at Nick, wrapping his arms around him and kissed him. Once he realized what he was doing he quickly pulled back blushing furiously.

'He's gunna kill me!' Ellis thought.

"Uh…I'm sorry I really didn't mean to do that I just…" Ellis started but then realized that he didn't have a good explanation for that.

Ellis still couldn't see the look on Nick's face so he just assumed that Nick was pissed so he winced and pulled away from him until his back was literally against the wall. He shut his eyes tight ready for the yelling and the beating that Nick was surely going to give him. It didn't come. Ellis slowly opened one eye and before he could fully open his eyes he felt Nick wrap his arms around him and kiss him. Ellis was stunned as he didn't think that Nick was ever going to feel the same way he did. Ellis pulled back slightly and looked at him.

"Nick, what are you doin?" Ellis asked.

To be honest Nick didn't even know why he was doing this. All he knew was that he liked the feeling of being near Ellis kissing and holding him. He started moving Ellis to where he would be lying on the floor and Nick would be on top of him. Ellis felt his face turn bright red.

"Nick?"

"Just be quiet ok?" Nick said as he kissed him.

Ellis just smiled as Nick lied on top of him and Ellis wrapped his arms around him kissing him back.

Author's notes: Only one more week till gears comes out yay! ^_^ I so cant wait to play it but of course I have to wait a few more days after that because I preordered mine online. Left 4 dead 2's DLC still hasn't come out and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it doesn't come out until Christmas. I don't know about you guys but I think Valve sucks when it comes to making new stuff and then actually having it to where we can finally play it on the Xbox 360. They're probably just better off making a Left 4 Dead 3. Anyway you guys can probably guess what might happen later in this story but if not that's cool. I think id rather surprise you anyway. Im trying hard to not put spoilers in my notes so that you wont get all mad at me for me spoiling it for you. Of course once I get my gears game im not sure just how often ill be updating this story because more then likely ill be hooked playing the game like all the time when im not in school. Anyways as always reviews are always loved and appreciated so please review when you get the chance! Im not desperate or anything. Id just like to know what people think of my story so far.


	7. Morning After

Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

By the time the sun had started rising Ellis hadn't realized that he had fallen asleep as he looked over and saw that Nick was sleeping in the exact same spot that he had been yesterday before coming over to talk to him. He frowned.

'Was that just a dream or did Nick actually…' Ellis thought blushing as he remembered what had happened last night, 'I guess it was just a dream. There's no way Nick…'

Just as he thought that Nick and the others started to stir and Ellis watched as Nick slowly looked up at him and then quickly looked away with a small blush on his cheeks. Rochelle yawned as she got up and started to stretch as she looked at both Nick and Ellis.

"So are you boys feeling any better now?" Rochelle asked looking from one to another, but Ellis in particular.

Ellis slowly got up just to see if his body was still in any pain or not.

"Much better then yesterday. It ain't hurtin as bad right now." Ellis responded looking at her and then at Nick, "You alright there, Nick?"

Nick nodded as he got up avoiding looking at Ellis directly.

"Yeah." Nick said.

"Well that's good cause we still got a ways to go before we get to the bridge." Coach said as the first thing he did was get up and grab ammo and a health kit.

Ellis frowned as he watched Nick move to grab ammo and started blushing as he realized that maybe last night really did happen as that was the only thing that could explain why Nick seemed to be acting differently. Rochelle frowned slightly wondering if something happened last night as she looked at them. Coach didn't even notice as he looked outside to see that there was already quite a few zombies that they would have to take care of.

"As soon as y'all are ready we're gunna have to take care of some zombies already." Coach told them.

"Do you think we'll have time to find something to eat, Coach?" Rochelle asked as she turned to look at him.

"Probably not baby girl. Best chance we got is either in the next safe house or when we get rescued." Coach replied.

'If we get rescued.' Nick thought as he grabbed a health kit and headed toward the door.

Ellis felt nervous as he too grabbed what he needed and went towards the door ready to shoot at anything that gets in their way.

"Everybody ready?" Coach asked just as Rochelle grabbed her stuff and held her gun at the ready.

Nick rolled his eyes.

"Just open the goddamn door Coach!" Nick told him.

Coach didn't bother to respond as he opened the door and started shooting at the zombies closest to him. While he and Rochelle took the lead, Ellis went up to Nick and looked at him worried.

"Uh, Nick? You sure you doin alright?" Ellis asked.

Nick sighed.

"I'm alright, Overalls." Nick replied still not looking directly at him.

"Then how come yer not looking at me? Is somethin wrong?" Ellis asked wondering if he was over thinking the situation and just assuming that what happened last night really happened.

Nick ran a hand through his hair before turning to face him.

"You're seriously not thinking about what happened last night?" Nick asked frowning slightly wondering if Ellis didn't really care as much as he let on during their talk last night.

Ellis's whole face turned bright red.

"I-I thought that was a dream…"

"Trust me it wasn't."

"O-Oh.."

Ellis felt really embarrassed and awkward now as he realized that things between him and Nick were definitely different now than before. He hadn't realized that while they were talking Coach and Rochelle had already gotten rid of the zombies that were in their way.

"Hey, boys we could use your help!" Rochelle called out as she and Coach headed inside a house blasting at a few more zombies that were in there.

"We're comin!" Ellis yelled back still looking at Nick as he watched him catch up to Rochelle and quickly followed right behind.

After climbing the stairs and walked out onto the balcony they immediately heard a smoker coming from across the street to where other houses were at.

"Careful the smoker could try to get us from the rooftops." Coach said as he looked around for it.

"Well we can't stand around waiting for it to show up lets go." Nick said as he walked to where a van was parked and jumped on top of it shooting at the zombies that were on the road.

Ellis quickly followed and just as he felt a tongue start to wrap around him it stopped as he saw that Rochelle had killed the smoker that was on the rooftop.

"Thanks, Ro." Ellis said smiling at her before jumping off the van and following Nick.

Rochelle smiled at him as she and Coach followed behind them.

"Hey, Nick try not to get too far alright?" Ellis told him as he caught up.

"Relax. I'm not stupid enough to go wandering off by myself." Nick told him.

"I know yer not I just don't wanna see you….you know." Ellis whispered that last part as he rubbed the back of his neck looking at him worriedly.

Nick turned to look at him and nodded wanting to so desperately put his arms around him to let him know that he wasn't going anywhere but couldn't because of a few reasons one being that they were out in the open where the infected could get at them.

"Same goes for you sport. Just please don't do anything stupid alright?" Nick told him.

Ellis nodded.

"I won't."

Having been too far off Rochelle and Coach didn't even hear what they said as they caught up. Nick snorted.

"What took you guys so long to catch up?" Nick asked.

"Sorry, Nick. We were just looking to see if we could find some supplies." Rochelle told him.

"And? Did you find any?" Nick asked looking at her.

She shook her head.

"Don't worry about it we might find sumethin in one of these houses." Coach told her as they started going through another house.

After passing through a few more buildings they managed to find two bottles of pain pills which Rochelle and Coach picked up and then made their way to where they found themselves having to alert a horde of zombies just so they could get across to the second story of another house. Once they started it they immediately went back to where they jumped off the balcony on to the top of a small building and started killing whatever that approached them.

"Y'all I hear a hunter!" Ellis yelled out not sure of where it was coming from as zombies started surrounding them.

"That's not our only problem." Nick said as he saw a boomer coming from where they had jumped down from, but couldn't get a good aim because of all the zombies attacking him.

Being closest to Rochelle the boomer vomited all over her and the zombies quickly changed their target to her. Coach quickly killed the boomer before it could do anymore damage and just as he did the hunter pounced on him and started ripping into him.

"Get it off!" Coach yelled.

Nick pushed it off of him and killed it then went back to helping Ellis and Rochelle with the zombies. Having been too busy trying to help Rochelle none of them heard that a charger was around so when it rammed into all four of them it sent them flying off the roof and started pummeling Rochelle into the ground.

"Chargers got me! Help!" Rochelle cried out.

The guys quickly got up ignoring the pain they were in from being thrown off the building (even if it wasn't that high) and went to help her out. They quickly killed it and Ellis helped her to her feet.

"Holy…Ro are you alright?" Ellis asked worried as he saw her stumble.

"I think I'm ok for now…" Rochelle replied as she took some of her pain pills.

"You probably should heal Rochelle." Nick told her.

Rochelle shook her head.

"No we need to get going. I'd rather save the health kit till when I really need it." Rochelle said.

"Are you sure baby girl?" Coach asked wondering if he should just heal her himself.

"Yeah besides the safe house shouldn't be far right?" Rochelle asked.

Coach sighed.

"Well alright, but if you need help let us know." Coach told her as they once again headed back up to cross over to the house.

As soon as they went through the house and got rid of a few more infected they found themselves facing an alley and just beyond it they could clearly see the bridge.

"Well we made it y'all!" Coach said.

"About time. I just really hope that this time we're getting rescued instead of having to go through another town like this." Rochelle sighed as they kept walking.

Nick frowned wondering why they haven't run into the Tank or the Witch yet and he started to get a bad feeling about this. Ellis frowned as he looked at him.

"Nick?"

"It's nothing, Ellis. Let's just keep moving." Nick told him as they followed right behind Rochelle and Coach.

Halfway through they heard the sound of a Tank making all of them wince knowing that there was no way that they could sneak past it without alerting it.

"Ok y'all on the count of three keep behind me." Coach told them as he started counting down, "One…two…THREE!"

They all started running and that immediately alerted the Tank as they ran past making it chase after them. Having found a pipe bomb earlier Coach tossed it way ahead of them so it could keep the other infected busy. Of course they hadn't seen that a jockey and a hunter was nearby and while the Tank had their attention the Jockey jumped on Coach and started steering him away while the hunter pounced on Nick.

"Get it off!" Nick yelled, but before anyone could help the tank swung its arm at him killing the hunter and sending him flying.

"NO!" Ellis yelled as he ran after the Tank while Rochelle ran to help out Coach.

While the tank was picking up a rock to throw at Nick, Ellis got close to it and started shooting it in its back. Having pissed it off the Tank turned its attention to him and swung its arm sending Ellis flying and stumbling to pick himself back up as he reached for his weapon, but the Tank had ran towards him and sent him flying again.

"ELLIS!" Nick yelled terrified as he ran to help him.

Just before the tank could do anymore damage to him it suddenly stopped and fell to the floor dead. Nick was speechless as he looked up and saw that someone was on the bridge and clearly looked like had helped them. Ellis groaned as he slowly got up and looked up and saw that Nick was looking at something making him frown and turn to see what it was. His eyes went wide when he saw who it was.

"…Keith."

Author's notes: Look whose still alive lol I know it's been what about two years since I last updated this story (holy…) well it's been mostly because I was too lazy to update since I hadn't gotten any reviews at the time and after a few months I said aw to heck with it. I'm seriously surprised that I managed to even write this chapter. It was just out of the blue. Anyway it probably sucks cause well it's been a long time since I posted this story and actually wrote something so I'm not surprised if this didn't turn out as good as I was hoping it was going to be. Anyway don't expect another chapter up again for awhile because I don't know when I'll get inspired again if at all. I was seriously thinking about putting this as a discontinued story, but I didn't. No idea why I didn't do that.


	8. A Familiar Face

Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

Ellis couldn't believe his eyes as he struggled to keep himself standing up and looked at Keith in shock. He hadn't even noticed that Nick had went up to him to make sure he was ok.

"You alright, overalls?" Nick asked him frowning slightly noticing that Ellis couldn't stop staring at the guy on the bridge as he put a hand to his shoulder making Ellis jump slightly.

"Why hey there, Ellis. It's good to see that yer doin alright. Um hang on I'll be right down in a sec." Keith told him as he made his way back to the exit of the safe room.

Nick raised an eyebrow looking from Keith back to Ellis.

"You know him, Ellis?" Nick asked.

Ellis swallowed and nodded as his knees started shaking wondering if it was because he saw Keith or if he had taken too much damage from the Tank that he felt like he was going to fall.

"That's Keith, Nick." Ellis told him.

"Did you just say 'Keith' sweetie?" Rochelle asked as she and Coach walked up to them.

"Yeah."

Nick was in complete shock as he thought that all this time Keith was dead. He had immediately noticed that Ellis looked like was about to fall so he hurriedly put his arm around him to help keep him steady.

"Easy there, Ellis. You might have taken too much of a beating from the tank so I'll help you to the safe room alright?" Nick told him.

Coach sighed.

"What is it with you two and Tanks?" Coach asked.

"Apparently they just like us better." Nick replied as they started making their way to the safe room.

Ellis was quiet all the way there as he didn't know how he should react about Keith being here with him again. If Keith had shown up a lot sooner he'd be thrilled to see him alive and tagging along with them, but now he knew that things were different. Ellis glanced at Nick wondering how he'll react with having Keith being around him again.

"You alright, Ellis? You're not in a lot of pain are you?" Nick asked looking at him frowning slightly as he wondered why the kid was suddenly quiet.

"I'm alright, Nick." Ellis replied just as Keith opened the door to the safe room to let them in.

Nick started to worry as he could immediately tell that Ellis was acting differently than he normally did as he watched Keith walk towards them and start to help Ellis inside the safe room.

"I got him, man. Thanks." Keith told him as they all made their way inside the safe room and Rochelle quickly closed the door and barred it shut with whatever she could find.

The moment Keith took Ellis away from him Nick started feeling slightly angry and jealous of the fact that now that he was here Keith was going to be having a lot of Ellis's attention. Nick clenched his fists tightly before finding a place to sit so he could heal. Rochelle and Coach made their way up the ladder to the second floor of the safe room so that they could heal and give Ellis and Keith some privacy. Keith helped Ellis to sit down on the floor with his back against the wall and looked at him seriously.

"Ya doin alright, Ellis? Need help gettin healed up?" Keith asked.

Ellis shook his head not looking at him.

"I'm fine, Keith. Don't worry about me." Ellis replied quietly.

Keith frowned as he turned to look at Nick.

"Hey, uh can you give us some privacy please? I need to talk to El for a little while." Keith asked.

Nick didn't like the idea of leaving them alone but decided to do it anyway because he knew Ellis was most likely going to want some time alone with Keith anyway so he headed up the ladder reluctantly. Once Nick reached the top Keith turned his attention back to Ellis and kneeled down in front of him.

"Any reason why you ain't lookin at yer boyfriend now?" Keith asked.

Ellis tried not to wince as he forced himself to look at him.

"Sorry, Keith. I just ain't feelin too good right now. I got my ass handed to me by a fuckin tank." Ellis said.

Keith nodded.

"I noticed. Pretty brave of ya to shoot at the Tank at that close of a range. Why if sumethin happened to ya I would have to kill you mahself." Keith told him seriously, "Now let me look at ya to see what that Tank did to you."

While Keith was lifting his shirt, revealing that his chest and stomach was even more bruised than before and Keith ran his hands through his chest to check to see if anything was broken, Ellis started feeling uncomfortable as he moved around slightly wincing when he felt Keith's hand hit a sore spot.

"That hurt?" Keith asked looking at him.

"A little. Probably bruised my ribs or sumethin cause this is the second time I was hit by the Tank at least recently that is." Ellis told him.

Keith nodded.

"Well, at least nuthin feels broken so you should be ok. I don't see any scratches or blood anywhere neither, but I have a feelin that if you get knocked around too much you might break sumethin." Keith told him.

Ellis sighed knowing full well how hard the Tank can hit, hell even a Charger. It was quiet for a few seconds before Ellis finally asked.

"Where were you, Keith?"

Keith sighed.

"I'm sorry, El. I didn't mean ta scare you none, but there were jus too many people and zombies runnin around I didn't have time to go back and look for you after we got separated. I stayed hidden in a safe house for awhile before headin back out. I managed to run into some people and we managed to get this far but…"

Keith rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at him worried.

"We all got separated after we got attacked by a horde of zombies and then I managed to find this safe room so I waited here till someone else showed up. I even went on top of the bridge to look through mah sniper rifle and at first I didn't see anyone, but that's when I saw em. Two of em had already become zombies and the third was bein eaten by quite a few zombies includin our friends that I knew it was already too late for them." Keith said sadly.

Ellis winced.

"I'm sorry ta hear about that, Keith. When did this happen?"

"I guess sometime yesterday. We got here two days ago and that's around the time when we got separated."

Ellis was wide eyed knowing that if they hadn't decided to stay in that last safe room for the night they probably would have been able to help them.

"I'm so sorry, Keith. We were here in the area and if we had known…"

Keith shook his head.

"Nuthin ya could have done, El. It just hurts havin ta see them like that."

Ellis didn't even want to imagine what that would have been like for him especially if it was Nick.

"So uh what were their names?" Ellis asked.

"Paul, Drake and Emily." Keith told him, "What are yer friends names?"

"Coach, Rochelle and Nick." Ellis replied.

Having heard their names Rochelle called down to them.

"Did you guys call us?" Rochelle asked having not really heard their conversation since she, Nick and Coach were talking to each other.

"Nah, Ro. Just tellin Keith what yer names are." Ellis responded.

"Why don't you guys come up here so we can talk to him too." Rochelle said.

"Ok we'll be right up." Ellis replied as he slowly stood back up.

Keith put a hand on his shoulder frowning slightly.

"Do they know about me, El?" Keith asked.

"Sorta. I mentioned you a few times before, but since we were in the middle of killing zombies I couldn't ya know say much." Ellis told him.

"Do they know about us?"

Ellis hesitated before finally saying.

"No and I'd like to keep it that way. Also, Keith, would you mind and stop touching me for awhile? I'm still in a lot of pain here." Ellis said trying to come up with an excuse to get Keith to stop trying to be affectionate towards him.

Keith raised an eyebrow already suspecting that something was up.

"Uh ok so I can't even do this?"

Keith went closer to him to try and kiss him, but Ellis quickly put his hands up in front of him to stop him.

"No, Keith. You know that I don't like to do those kind of things in front of people or anywhere near them where they can hear and see." Ellis said though thinking about it he wouldn't mind being like that with Nick although he did kinda already do that in front of Coach and Rochelle sort of making him start to blush furiously.

Thinking Ellis was blushing because of him Keith chuckled and shook his head.

"Still the same as always, El. Ok then until we get rescued and find ourselves a private place for jus the two of us I'll put off makin my advances towards you alright? Oh and I promise I won't say a thing."

'Shit that's not what I was goin for. Maybe I should jus tell him that I'm not interested in him like that anymore.' Ellis thought.

Ellis was about to tell him that when he saw Nick climbing down the ladder and stopped.

"I'm guessin yer Nick." Keith said looking at him.

Nick had his hands in his pockets and looked at him seriously.

"Yeah look why don't you go upstairs and get acquainted with Rochelle and Coach. I want to talk to Ellis in private." Nick told him.

"Ok oh and before I forget there are some canned foods here if y'all are hungry." Keith said pointing at the ones that were on the floor and started climbing the ladder.

"Thanks, Keith." Ellis replied watching him go up before turning his attention to Nick, "You doin ok, Nick? I mean I'm sorry that I didn't help you heal…"

Nick sighed as he went to sit on the floor next to Ellis making Ellis sit back down himself.

"I wasn't that hurt, overalls. You on the other hand just love getting attacked by the Tank. Why do you keep doing that?" Nick asked looking at him worriedly, "I mean that's the second time that you did that."

"Second time?" Ellis asked.

"Rochelle filled me in on what happened before when you healed me and tried to give me your adrenaline. Why would you do something like that, Ellis?"

"Well it's cause I thought you were gunna die, Nick and I didn't want to see that happen." Ellis replied.

Nick just looked at him.

"You do realize that those are Tanks you're charging at right?"

"Yeah."

"They could easily kill you!" Nick said emphasizing the last three words.

"I don't care. If it helps to keep you alive then…"

Nick growled.

"Goddammit, Ellis. Don't you dare say that. I am not about to let you die protecting me!"

Ellis sighed as he looked at him with a serious expression on his face.

"I'm gunna be honest with you alright, Nick. You have helped me out so much before that I know sorry or thanks is never gunna be enough to show you how much you mean to me. Nick, I love you more than my own damn life and I know that you have no reason to believe me considerin how I've acted until recently."

'I love you more than I love Keith' Ellis thought to himself.

Nick was completely horrified at the idea that Ellis was more than willing to give up his own life for him. He shook his head as moved to sit in front of him and put both his hands on his shoulders gripping them tightly.

"Ellis don't…"

Before Nick could even finish saying what he was about to say Ellis wrapped his arms around him and kissed him. Ellis could feel Nick's arms slowly move to wrap around his waist as Nick pulled him closer to him deepening the kiss. Ellis was glad that the others were too busy talking to hear what they were doing.

Author's notes: Well would you look at that I managed to post another chapter up without waiting for another two years to go by. Of course it was thanks to those who reviewed and favorited or put it to alert my story so thanks. It's amazing that even after all this time I still know where I want to take this story. Chances are I might do two different endings one I can guess will be better than the other, but I still wanna post both of them. Anyway thanks you guys for the support it really means a lot to me. I'm sorry there wasn't any action in this chapter, but there will be in the next one. Of course I'm in school right now so I'll hopefully post again when I get the chance.


	9. The Bridge

Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

Before the others found out about what they were doing Nick and Ellis quickly moved away from each other and grabbed some of the canned foods so that they could eat. Ellis then mentioned to the others that there was food there in the safe room and watched as they climbed down the ladder and quickly ate before finally deciding to load up on supplies so that they could head out right away.

"Well it ain't much, but it's better than nuthin." Coach sighed wishing that they had more to eat, but knew that he was just going to have to deal for now as he threw away the empty can that he had just finished eating and went to pick up his gun as well as a health pack.

"It ain't far now. I heard from a walkie talkie that I found just exitin the safe room that rescue is waitin for us on the other side of the bridge." Keith told him as he reloaded his gun.

"That's good to know as long as they're still there that is and as long as they're not infected." Rochelle sighed not wanting to have to experience that again.

"They're still there alright. Even while I was helpin y'all out with the Tank I heard someone talkin through it." Keith told her as he looked at her.

"Well only way to know for sure is if we get across this goddamn bridge." Nick replied already ready to go as he stood next to the ladder and looked at them.

"It's not like we have a choice, Nick. I'm just hopin that this turns out alright." Coach told him as he walked towards him and started heading up the ladder.

Ellis watched as Keith and Rochelle finished getting ready themselves and started making their way up the ladder. He swallowed feeling nervous about having to run across the bridge just to get to where the rescue was going to be at. Nick walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder gripping it slightly.

"Relax, overalls. Nothing is going to happen out here alright? It's just going to be the same thing that we've always dealt with." Nick told him having noticed that he was nervous and was looking at him with a serious look on his face.

Ellis rubbed the back of his neck still not completely sure about that.

"I know yer right, Nick, but don't you think that maybe sumethin MIGHT happen? I mean it's a bridge and we don't exactly have a lot of room to…"

Ellis was cut off as Nick put both his hands on his shoulders gripping them tightly.

"First off I'm not going to let that happen especially if it's you and second why are you suddenly worrying about what's going to happen?" Nick asked frowning slightly.

Ellis didn't say anything so Nick continued.

"Listen, Ellis you don't need to worry because you know how good all of us are at handling difficult situations plus we got your friend here to help us out as well."

Ellis sighed as he lowered his arm and looked at Nick.

"I know that. What I'm concerned about is the Charger and the Tank. Nick, I think you and I both know what the chances are of them targeting us and Nick it can't be you." Ellis told him.

"Ellis, it's not going to be either of us and don't you dare fucking say that it's going to be you! I don't want to hear that shit! We're getting out of here so there's no way in hell that anyone's going to die out here after how far we have come just to get here especially you! I helped you get here so there's no way in fucking hell that you are dying now!" Nick said angrily.

"But Nick…"

"No buts, Ellis. Nothing is going to happen and we are getting out of here. ALL of us so don't you dare start thinking that way! If you so much as try to save me by sacrificing your life I will make sure that you don't even get the chance!" Nick told him looking at him seriously.

Ellis looked at him horrified.

"Nick, what are you…"

Ellis was interrupted as he heard Keith call down to them.

"Hey El, are you ready to go yet?" Keith asked.

Ellis paused for a second before answering.

"Yeah, we'll be right up." Ellis told him.

Ellis watched as Nick made his way up the ladder as he clenched his fists tightly at his sides before following behind him. Just as Ellis finished climbing the ladder they all made their way outside and Coach went towards the walkie talkie and pressed the button. A voice was heard coming from it and Coach started talking to him. As soon as he was done he told the others that rescue was indeed waiting on the other side and all they had to do was lower the bridge and get across it.

"Y'all be careful now. This ain't like how we're used to fightin them." Coach told them as he pressed the button to lower the bridge.

"This should be easy. All we have to do is get across it right?" Rochelle asked slightly worried herself.

As soon as it was lowered everyone winced at how many cars were on the bridge. Ellis turned completely white as he thought that with one swing a Tank could easily kill all of them with all these vehicles.

"Shit. I didn't think there was gunna be THAT many cars on the bridge. Sorry y'all I guess I must have not seen enough of the bridge to let y'all know about the cars." Keith said rubbing the back of his head as he looked at them, but more specifically at Ells, worriedly.

"Nuthin we coulda done about it anyways. Let's move people and stay away from the sides!" Coach told them as he led the way.

The moment they left the safety of the safe room they could hear that a few of the special infected were around. Ellis winced when he heard that a Charger was among them.

"Whatever you guys do don't let the Charger charge you." Rochelle told them as she looked around for any sign of it.

"Don't let the Jockey jump on you either. It could easily steer you off the bridge." Keith added as he moved closer to Ellis.

Ellis nodded as they kept making their way past the cars and killing as many zombies as they could. Before they got very far a Smoker showed up behind them as it's tongue wrapped around Keith and started pulling him towards it. With Ellis being so close to him the Smoker was quickly killed just as the Jockey showed up and jumped on top of Rochelle.

"Get this thing off of my head!" Rochelle cried out as it tried to steer her towards the side of the bridge. With Coach and Nick being closest to her it was quickly killed.

"Y'all look out for the Charger!" Coach yelled as he saw that just in front of him was the Charger and it already started charging in their direction.

Coach, Rochelle and Nick quickly got out of its way, but unfortunately it managed to ram into Ellis, sending Keith flying, and started smashing him into the ground. Ellis started screaming out in pain as he knew that his body couldn't take much more of this. Nick and Keith, who just got back up, went towards it and kept shooting at it until it died.

"El, are you alright?!" Keith watched worriedly as Nick helped him up.

Ellis stumbled as he felt Nick catch him looking completely horrified as he saw that Ellis was struggling to keep himself conscious.

"Overalls, hey look at me I've got you alright. You're going to be fine." Nick told him making Ellis struggle to keep his eyes focused on him.

"Y'all I could use some help here!" Coach yelled out.

"Keith, I can help out Coach with the front. Can you guard the back?" Rochelle asked as she tossed out a pipe bomb.

Keith nodded as he looked at Nick and Ellis.

"Yeah I got it." Keith replied trying to keep his cool as he pulled out his adrenaline and handed it to Ellis, "Can't have you goin down on me now, El. Here."

Nick grabbed it and quickly injected it into Ellis's arm while Keith turned his attention back to the zombies.

"Come on, Ellis just hang on a bit longer we're almost there." Nick said pushing him slightly to get him moving.

The adrenaline at least helped to get him moving and he wasn't in as much pain so Ellis was able to keep his eyes open and focus on killing the zombies. At about half ways there, after having found some pain pills for Ellis and having dealt with a few more special infected, they felt the bridge start to shake and everyone winced as they saw the Tank come into view.

"Shit, there's too many cars!" Rochelle cried out.

"Just run and shoot!" Coach yelled as they started backing away from the tank.

Keith brought out his molotov and threw it towards the Tank just as it started trying to throw cars at them. Of course zombies were still rushing at them from behind so they tried getting them out of the way before the Tank could reach them. Ellis watched wide eyed as a car was thrown directly towards them. He fell to the floor as it flew past him. Ellis then quickly got back up and started shooting at the Tank and just as it got close to him it died. Ellis's heart beat was so fast that he hadn't heard that Nick had yelled out his name when the Tank had thrown the car towards them. He did however just then hear Rochelle scream making Ellis's heart skip a beat as he just stood there frozen in fear.

'The car missed me but did it…'

Ellis was afraid to turn around as he hoped that it hadn't been Nick who had been hit by the car. He slowly turned around just as he felt someone's hand on his shoulder and with wide eyes saw that it was Nick who was looking at him clearly relieved to find him ok. Ellis swallowed as he started shaking.

"Nick…"

Nick sighed.

"Damn, Ellis I swear you like to scare the shit out of me."

Ellis was about to ask if everyone was ok, but after fully turning around and saw how everyone was he didn't need Nick to tell him what had happened as Ellis turned completely white unable to form sentences together as he saw the state that Coach was in.

"Coach…oh god…" Rochelle cried as she put a hand to her mouth as her tears started falling down her face.

The car had literally slammed into Coach and with such force it had killed him on impact, blood pooling underneath his dead body. Ellis felt like throwing up as he watched Keith make his way over to Rochelle and tried to get her to stand up.

"I'm sorry, Rochelle, but we have ta get goin. I can already see the zombies headin right for us." Keith told her.

Rochelle wanted to so badly say no that she wanted to stay here and mourn for Coach, but she knew that he was right and that staying there would just get the rest of them killed as well. She got up and followed after him stopping just for a second to look back at Coach.

"Goodbye, Coach. I'll miss you." Rochelle said as she went to catch up with the others.

Author's notes: Well that was unexpected. I originally wasn't planning on killing off Coach, but I decided to just go along with it in this chapter. What's also surprising is that I've been inspired enough lately to write as many chapters as I have lately which this makes a total of 3 recently updated. I honestly didn't think anyone would still be reading this so I thought that after I updated the first time which was chapter 7 I probably wouldn't get a lot of attention but I am glad that you guys are reading it! ^_^ Anyway next time I update will probably be another 2 weeks or so just to give this chapter enough time for people to read before I post another if I'm not busy.


	10. Keith's Jealousy

Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

"Well so much for everyone gettin out of here. I'm sorry about yer friend y'all." Keith said as they ran all the way towards a fuel truck and started climbing it just as more zombies started to show up.

Rochelle sighed sadly before turning her attention to the zombies.

"I wish we had time to mourn, but there are way too many zombies out here." Rochelle replied killing a few zombies with a headshot.

"Well mourn later because it looks like we're almost there. I can barely see the helicopter from here." Nick said once he climbed up the ladder of the fuel truck.

Ellis felt like he was on an adrenaline rush because his heart beat wouldn't slow down from what he had just seen with the Tank. This made things harder on him because he knew that if Coach was killed THAT easily and fast he knew that there was a possibility that Nick could get killed just as easily even though they were almost to where the rescue was going to be at.

'Shit. I was right. I knew sumethin was gunna happen I just didn't think it was gunna be…like that.' Ellis thought to himself wincing as he saw a hunter jump towards him and Rochelle and quickly killed it before it could get on either one of them.

Rochelle started making her way up and then she, Nick and Keith covered Ellis as he started climbing.

"We're almost there y'all just a little further!" Keith yelled out as they made their way to the upper portion of the bridge and saw that there were a couple of huge holes right in front of them.

Ellis groaned as he saw zombies coming from ahead of them as well as behind them. He also saw a Spitter just ahead of them and tried to kill it before it could spit at them.

"Y'all look out for the goo!" Ellis yelled out having to move closer to the edge of the right side of the bridge as he managed to kill the Spitter, but it still managed to spit where they were at.

Everyone else moved away from it making Nick growl as heard a Boomer and possibly another Charger.

"There's no way in fucking hell that we are dying now. Ellis, you and Rochelle take care of the zombies behind us. Your friend and I will take care of the ones in front." Nick told him as they kept making their away across the bridge, killing anything that got in their way, "Just make sure to watch out for the Charger this time alright, Ellis. We can't afford to lose anyone else before we get to the copter."

Keith frowned glancing slightly at Nick as he could barely hear that Nick sounded almost like he was worried. He wasn't stupid. He could tell that when they had arrived at the safe room it seemed to him as though Nick and Ellis had a relationship that was almost about the same as what he and Ellis had.

'Naw. No way is Ellis cheatin on me, but then again it has been a few months since we were separated.' Keith thought to himself as he felt himself start to get jealous.

Keith had also heard the conversation in the safe room just before they left so that all the more fueled his anger and jealousy as he tried to get himself to stop thinking about it as they jumped onto another fuel truck and landed down on another portion of the bridge.

'El promised me that we'd always watch each other's backs and stay together, but that's not happenin right now is it?' Keith thought as he saw a Boomer suddenly show up and vomited all over Nick and watched as Rochelle and Ellis quickly helped him out.

Keith started killing as many zombies as he could get, but also paid attention to Ellis's reactions as he saw him kill the Boomer once Nick pushed it away. Just as they thought they were in the clear Ellis saw with wide eyes as the Charger came out from its hiding place (behind a car) and tried to ram at Nick, who still had the smell of Boomer vile on him and was close to the side of the bridge.

"NICK!" Ellis screamed out in horror as he knew that the Charger was too fast and that there was no way they could kill it before it rammed into him.

Keith, being closest, grabbed Nick's arm and pulled him towards him making the Charger just barely miss him. Ellis sighed with relief as he saw Nick say thanks to Keith before continuing to kill the zombies who were still rushing at them from both sides. While Rochelle and Nick went on ahead to clear a path to the helicopter, Ellis went up to Keith and smiled at him.

"Thanks, Keith." Ellis told him before following behind the others.

Keith raised an eyebrow completely suspicious about the fact that he might have been right about them being as close or maybe even closer than him and Ellis. Keith grit his teeth trying to tell himself that he was Ellis's boyfriend not Nick and he was just reading too much into this. Of course it was getting hard to tell himself that when it seemed like to him that Ellis was more worried about Nick than about him.

'Maybe it's just cause I haven't been in trouble yet that's it. That's gotta be it.' Keith thought to himself before shaking his head realizing exactly where his thoughts were leading him to, 'That's crazy that's just gunna put them in more danger and I can't do that to them especially to El.'

Keith had been too busy thinking that he hadn't heard a Hunter sneak up on him. By the time he turned around it pounced and started ripping him to shreds.

"Help! This thing's messin me up!" Keith screamed.

"Keith!"

Keith heard his name being called out as he heard a few gunshots and the Hunter was quickly killed. Ellis helped him up as Rochelle tossed out a pipe bomb she had just found.

"Come on, Keith you can't die now. Like you said we're almost there so come on just a little more." Ellis told him as he handed him his pain pills and looked at him worriedly.

Keith nodded wincing in pain as he looked at him. Ellis was worried, but it was nowhere near how worried he was about Nick. Keith had a pained look on his face making Ellis worry even more.

"You alright, Keith? Can you walk?" Ellis asked.

Keith nodded as he quickly took some of the pain pills.

"Yeah let's just go." Keith told him as they ran before the zombies started running after them again.

They could now clearly see the helicopter as they started making their way down the ladder.

"Boys, we have to run!" Rochelle yelled out as she saw a Tank lift a rock and toss it towards them.

"Shit!" Nick yelled out backing away making it just barely miss him.

Nick and Rochelle started shooting at it while Ellis and Keith climbed down the ladder. The Tank started picking up speed as it ran towards and got close enough to hit Rochelle. With having hit Rochelle away from it and Nick being the next person it saw the Tank ran after him. Ellis was wide eyed and ran towards the Tank.

"Dammit, El! I don't think you can take much more! Come back!" Keith yelled out as he ran after him.

Rochelle got back up and started shooting at the Tank again. Nick cursed as he reloaded and just as he was ready to fire again the Tank hit him sending him flying towards a set of cage bars and ran after him.

"Nick!" Ellis yelled out as he started getting closer to the Tank.

Having heard Keith's warning Nick growled as he stood back up.

"Ellis, don't you fucking dare get close to it!" Nick yelled out as he started backing away until he actually hit the cage bars and kept shooting at it.

Just as they all thought it was going to land another hit on him it fell on its knees then fell backwards and died. Nick saw that Ellis had already been right behind it just as it died making him growl angrily in frustration.

"Dammit, Ellis…"

"Nick, not now! The helicopter!" Rochelle told him as they all quickly ran just as the zombies caught up to them and they all managed to get inside the copter.

They watched as it closed its door and they all started sitting down as they felt the copter start to take off.

"Finally we made it." Rochelle sighed with relief as she had a small smile on her face.

However Nick was too pissed off to respond and even Ellis and Keith were looking at him obviously knowing why he was mad. Not even caring that he was saying this in front of Keith and Rochelle, Nick growled.

"Ellis, I told you not to go and try to protect me like that. You could've gotten yourself badly hurt if not killed!" Nick said angrily glaring at him.

"I'm sorry, Nick, but after Coach there was no way in hell that I was just gunna stand by and watch a Tank once again try to kill you!" Ellis replied obviously not sorry for taking the risk that he had.

"El, if you had taken another hit by sumethin like a Tank it most certainly woulda broken yer ribs. You've taken too many hits recently and it's just lucky that you haven't broken anythin yet." Keith told him

"Listen to him, Ellis. I'm still worried about what the Charger did to you that if the Tank had hit you I don't even know if you'd be conscious right about now let alone…." Nick said suddenly cutting himself off as he didn't even want to think of what could have happened.

Rochelle and Keith were surprised at how honest Nick was being right now. Ellis sighed.

"Nick, the Tank was goin after YOU and it was a risk I just had to take. You've done so much for me already that if I didn't do anythin to help you I wouldn't be able to live with mahself if sumethin happened." Ellis swallowed and looked away.

Nick sighed almost wishing that Ellis was still the kid who'd go off recklessly and kill everything in sight instead of trying to sacrifice himself to keep him alive. Right then Nick wanted to go over and wrap his arms around him and tell him how much he needs him, but with Rochelle and Keith here he couldn't, he still had his pride after all.

"Don't say that, Ellis. You've helped me enough as it is. You're not invincible y'know and you can't always be there to help me and I'm not expecting for you to do that." Nick told him still looking at him sadly.

Ellis bit his bottom him still refusing to look at him or even at Rochelle or Keith.

"I can try." Ellis whispered.

Nick and Rochelle looking at him worriedly while Keith just sat there completely trying hard not to show that he was jealous and angry.

'So I was right. Damn him from takin Ellis away from me!' Keith thought to himself angrily as he looked at Ellis while glancing at Nick.

Author's notes: Well another 2 weeks passed and once again the chapter I promised last time is up. I've been watching The Walking Dead recently and man it really is awesome! I can't believe I didn't see it before when it came out on T.V. I mean I saw parts, but not entire episodes. So now I can't wait until Season 4 starts. I bet it'll be just as good as the first 3! Only thing I don't understand is that they call them walkers and not zombies which seems odd to me, but whatever. Once again, unless I'm busy or lazy, it'll be at least another two weeks before I post again. The story is coming to an end here pretty soon so, so much for 20 chapters huh lol XD.


	11. Ellis's Guilt

Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

It felt like hours had gone by since they had gotten rescued by the helicopter. They were still anxiously waiting to see where the helicopter was taking them and of course during the whole trip so far there was an awkward silence between them ever since Ellis said that he was going to try and help Nick no matter what it took. Keith kept glaring at Nick who was obviously noticing since they had nothing else to do but stare at each other making him frown slightly wondering what Keith's problem was. Rochelle was off in the corner still crying about the fact that not all of them had made it. Ellis moved to sit next to her and wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so sorry, Ro. I never wanted for any of us to see well…. Y'know." Ellis said still grateful that he still had Nick and the others but was also sad about the fact that Coach didn't make it.

Rochelle sniffed and nodded.

"I know. I just was expecting that all of us were going to make it that I forgot that this is a zombie apocalypse and something was bound to go wrong eventually." Rochelle admitted sadly as she choked on a sob, "Everything went right for us before so I thought to myself why would this be any different? I feel so stupid for even thinking that we would be fine like we always are. I feel like a complete bitch for not making careful sure that all of us would be ok." Rochelle said as she clung on to Ellis and let the tears fall down her face.

Ellis rubbed her back as he looked at her sadly.

"It ain't yer fault, Ro. We all know that you, Keith and Nick did the best that you guys could. I on the other hand…" Ellis shook his head feeling completely ashamed that all he ever did was run off and kill zombies like it was a fucking game and now with Coach gone it just proved to Ellis that he was a complete idiot for acting the way he did. He was seriously lucky that they all made it despite how he handled every situation that was thrown at him.

"Don't do that to yourself, Overalls. It wasn't your fault either. Things just happen that we can't control and Coach just ended up on the end of a bad draw of luck. No matter what there was nothing we could have done to prevent Coach's death from happening. I'm just glad that the rest of us made it and don't you think that Coach would rather it be him dead then us? I'm sure he would rather have things end the way they did then to watch one of us die." Nick told him looking at him with a serious look on his face.

"Yeah I guess yer right Nick it's just…I can't believe I thought that this whole zombie apocalypse thing was just a fucking game. I mean y'all coulda died a hell of a lot sooner if it wasn't for the fact that y'all still had each other." Ellis tightened his grip on the back of Rochelle's shirt feeling completely guilty that that's all he ever was to them a burden even if none of them wanted to admit it, "If I had done something sooner maybe Coach wouldn't have…"

"Ellis, this isn't your fault." Nick said emphasizing each word to make himself perfectly clear.

"Nick, Coach actually helped y'all get here and he was supposed to get out as well. If anyone shoulda died it shoulda been…"

Rochelle was wide eyed as she already knew what Ellis was going to say. Nick growled as he got up and walked over to Ellis and put his hand on Ellis's shoulder gripping it tightly making Ellis wince.

"Don't you dare fucking say that. Coach helped ALL of us get here." Nick told him.

Ellis swallowed as he nodded.

"Yeah Nick he did but I didn't do anythin really to help out and after all yer the one who said that I was going to get everyone killed! I did nothin Nick nothin. All I did was cause more problems than what y'all needed." Ellis said not looking at him.

Rochelle was going to say something but instead moved away from Ellis because it was clearly obvious that Nick still wanted to say something. Not saying anything Keith continued to watch as Nick forced Ellis to look at him.

"Don't." Nick growled, "For fucks sake Ellis you're the one who healed me and gave me your adrenaline when you also needed it!"

"That was only recently Nick and yer wound wasn't all that bad. Just admit it please. You too Rochelle I was and have always been a…"

Ellis was cut off when Nick suddenly smashed his lips against his completely surprising everyone in the helicopter. Keith looked simply furious while Rochelle started to feel her face turn red. When Nick pulled away Ellis simply didn't know what to say as he opened and closed his mouth his whole face turning a bright red.

"Ellis, you've done plenty to help all of us out alright. Sure running on ahead wasn't the best of ideas but you did kill a lot of the infected that would have probably given us trouble and you did give us pain pills and adrenaline when we did need it."

Ellis sighed shaking his head.

"That wasn't enough Nick and you know it. How many times did I not notice when y'all were having trouble with a tank or witch or hell any special infected in general? How many goddamn times did I leave you guys just to go off on some killin spree and y'all were havin trouble keepin up because y'all were badly hurt? HOW MANY TIMES DID I NOT EVEN BOTHER TO MAKE SURE Y'ALL WERE SAFE!" Ellis practically yelled out the last bit as he clenched his fists tightly at his sides enough to draw blood.

Ellis's vision started to become fuzzy because of the tears that were starting to form and fall down his face. Nick looked at him sadly really regretting that he ever opened his mouth in the first place.

"Ellis, sweetie it really wasn't that bad please believe that." Rochelle said looking at him worriedly.

Ellis shook his head already knowing full well that it was bad.

"That's probably because Coach was helpin out a lot. I'm sorry that he died and y'all got stuck with…"

"Ellis shut up." Nick told him before sighing as he ran his hand through his hair, "You want to know how you've helped me? Without you there's no way in fucking hell that I would still be alive right now or even with this group. There was just something about you that kept me here alright?"

Ellis's eyes went wide not sure if he was hearing what he was hearing.

"What?" Ellis asked.

It was clearly obvious that Nick must have forgot that Rochelle and Keith were still there either that or he simply didn't care as he looked at Ellis straight in the eyes.

"I wasn't kidding when I said that the first chance I get I was going to leave." Nick told him.

"Then why did you stay?" Ellis asked.

Nick shrugged.

"Like I said something about you and your fucking happy-go-lucky carefree personality. I swear it's like you didn't even know that the world was ending."

"But Nick you must have known that I was totally worthless. You SHOULD know after all that we've been through together up till recently so why are you…"

Nick once again cut Ellis off as he put both his hands on Ellis's shoulders and gripped them tightly.

"For one you're not worthless because you're the reason why I kept fighting sport and two there's no way in hell that I am about to watch you die because…" Nick hesitated never really good at telling people how he really felt, "…just because."

Nick turned to look away making Ellis look at him curiously. Rochelle smiled at them amazed that Nick finally admitted that he actually cared about Ellis. Keith still sat where he was at completely fuming with anger.

'What the fuck?! It's only been a few months and already Ellis found someone else to be with. I am seriously gunna hafta talk to him about this once we get to someplace a little more private then I'll show him that he's supposed to be with me!" Keith thought to himself.

Just then the guy who was flying the helicopter announced that they had just arrived at their destination. Nick and the others moved to where they could see out of the windows and saw that they weren't the only ones arriving at this destination. There was at least two or three other helicopters bringing people in and they watched and felt as the helicopter slowly descended to the ground. As soon as it landed the helicopter's door opened and Nick and the others slowly made their way out of the helicopter and onto what looked like a safe zone.

"Where are we?" Rochelle asked looking around.

Ellis frowned as he saw people entering a building which he assumed was where everyone was going to be staying. It looked to be at least five stories tall and it looked to be about as big as a mall.

"The place doesn't seem all that big does it?" Keith asked as he looked over the entire building.

"They're probably not expecting a whole lot of people." Nick said not exactly surprised considering how many zombies they had to fight through just to get here.

Rochelle bit her lip hoping that there had to be other safe zones besides this one.

'I wonder how Francis and the others are doing.' Rochelle thought to herself wondering about Francis's team.

"I still think this place isn't going to hold up for very long. Sure it looks deserted for now and I'm assuming they barricaded whatever areas that the infected might come in through but I still don't trust this place to be safe or secure." Nick said looking at the place with a look of distrust.

Rochelle sighed.

"It's not like we have a choice Nick. It's either this or go back out and deal with the zombies." Rochelle told him.

"I think I'd rather deal with the zombies than this." Nick replied making Ellis frown and look at him.

"Why? You don't trust this place, Nick?" Ellis asked.

Nick didn't reply as he kept glaring at the place almost like he knew that this wasn't a good idea to just simply stay here and assume everything was ok.

"Look it might just be me but if we all think that something fishy is going on around here then we all leave ok?" Nick said as he looked at the others figuring they would have said no if he demanded to leave.

"Yeah alright but seriously Nick you should learn to trust people more." Rochelle told him as they started making their way towards the building.

"In this kind of situation? You can't trust anybody Rochelle except those in your group." Nick told her as he followed right behind her.

Keith watched Nick with a look of pure hatred on his face as he followed right behind him.

"Hey Keith you doin alright?" Ellis asked as he walked next to him looking at him worriedly, "You haven't said anythin since we got rescued."

"It's nothin I was just gettin tired of being out there all the time fightin for our lives." Keith told him before glancing at him, "Listen El we need to talk."

Ellis rubbed the back of his neck nervously already knowing what this was about since Nick did kiss him in front of Keith.

"I know. I was going to tell you but…"

"Wait until we get us a room or somethin so we can talk in private. I don't want anyone to listen in on our conversation." Keith said looking at him.

Ellis nodded not wanting Nick to know that he and Keith had been going out before the zombie apocalypse started.

"Yeah ok." Ellis said before catching up with Nick and Rochelle.

Keith kept on glaring at Nick even as they entered the building.

'Ellis is mine you hear me MINE!' Keith thought to himself angrily as he tried to figure out how to get Nick out of the picture.

Author's Notes: Um…hi. Yes I am alive and the only reason why I didn't update before was because I was waiting on reviews for my last chapter for weeks and when none came I got lazy again and before you know it another two years pass (sweat drops) before I decide to update again. This is what happens when I have no inspiration for a story I simply ignore it for long periods of time and it's a miracle literally if I update again like this one or more specifically this exact story and amazingly I STILL know how I want to end this story or rather two possible endings but hey probably will post both who knows if I miraculously update again. Anyway it's been so long that I'm sorry if this chapter kinda sucked I just eventually wanted to post another chapter to the story so here's another chapter so yeah 0.0'


	12. The Talk

Silent Lucidity

By: esmtz

The first thing that the group saw as soon as they entered the building was a couple of people in suits directing people to where they can set their things down before eventually getting checked just to make sure none of them were infected. Once they left their stuff (Nick very reluctantly) they signed their names on a clipboard indicating that they were there and are currently waiting to be checked for infection. While they were waiting the people in suits told them where they could go to grab something to eat and to wait. Following where the other survivors were headed they saw exactly just how big the building was from the inside.

"Considering this is supposed to be a safe place it really isn't that big is it?" Rochelle said noticing how many people were currently here.

"It was bigger on the outside and yet there's not a whole lot of people here." Ellis replied frowning slightly.

"Relax, El. We still haven't explored the whole place yet so maybe everyone else is just in another part of this place." Keith said looking around.

Nick didn't say anything as he was still sure that this place wasn't safe.

'How much you want to bet that most of the people who showed up here had to of been killed by these assholes.' Nick thought to himself clearly not on the verge of trusting anyone who worked here.

Rochelle for some reason suddenly found herself feeling a little anxious as she kept looking around watching as other people around her also looked slightly nervous.

'It's nothing. It's probably just me having dealt with nothing but the infected for months. I'm sure everything's fine.' Rochelle thought to herself.

In truth Rochelle was so used to it being just her, Nick, Ellis and Coach that it was a little hard for her to trust anyone else especially with what they witnessed just before they came here; the bombings and how many people's bodies they came across that weren't infected. However as soon as they turned the corner they saw that there was plenty of other people here and that they were sitting down at tables and either talking or eating food.

"See, El? I told you there was nuthin to worry about." Keith told him as they made their way towards where they could get food.

Rochelle sighed with relief for a second thinking that something might have been wrong while Ellis was completely grinning thinking for once they can actually have real food. While the others went to get food Nick still couldn't get himself to think that this place was safe. Even after seeing how many people were here in the cafeteria area alone it still didn't quiet the voice inside Nick's head telling him to get the fuck out of there. Of course there was nothing he could do about it since there was no way his friends would believe him even if he was convinced that staying here wasn't a good idea. All of them were exhausted from fighting against the infected and if Nick said that they had to leave there was no way that any of them would agree to it because for once it seemed as if they finally found a safe place to stay that had food and most likely an area to sleep and it wasn't like he was just going to leave these guys here especially Ellis. Not realizing that he had been just standing there thinking Ellis went up to Nick and waved a hand in front of his face making Nick snap out of it and look at him.

"What?" Nick asked looking at him.

"Ain't you gunna grab sumethin to eat Nick? You were just standin there starin at us." Ellis said looking at him worriedly.

Nick watched as Rochelle and Keith had already got their food and were making their way towards an empty table.

"Yeah I was just thinking no need to wait for me overalls." Nick told him.

"You still worried about this place? Man I don't think there's anythin you need to worry about." Ellis told him.

Nick sighed as he ran his hand through his hair stressing over if he should worry or not.

"I don't know Ellis. Every goddamn thing that I'm feeling is telling me to leave, that this place isn't safe." Nick admitted.

"Nick can you at least give this place a chance? I know you think that sumethin is up with this place but we're all tired and I don't think…"

"I know. I'll try to lighten up alright?" Nick replied before making his way to get something to eat.

"Hey Nick?" Ellis asked making Nick stop and turn to face him.

"Yeah?"

"…Yer not gunna leave are ya?" Ellis asked looking at him sadly.

Nick looked at the hurt expression on Ellis's face and smiled at him.

"What and leave you behind? No. I'm not leaving you here overalls not after everything we went through just to get here. Besides Rochelle will tear me a new one if I left."

Ellis chuckled making Nick grin as they both went and got their food before making their way to where Rochelle and Keith were sitting. Not long after they finished eating one of the guys who had them sign their names to be checked came by and told them that it was their turn to be checked. Rochelle went first and after she was done Nick went in then Keith and finally Ellis. Once Ellis was done the woman who had been checking them and had taken some of their blood gave Ellis a couple of room keys for the rooms they would be staying in as well as where the rooms were located.

"Y'all think that most of these rooms are most likely empty or what?" Ellis asked as they made their way past the cafeteria all the way to the end where they had to take an elevator up to where their rooms were.

"Probably unless there's more people hanging out in their rooms I'm going to take a guess and say yes they're empty." Rochelle said as she pressed the button to go to the third floor.

Out of the corner of his eye Nick caught Keith glaring at him making Nick sigh and turn to look at him.

"What's your problem?" Nick asked getting a little agitated with him.

Ellis looked between Nick and Keith hoping that Keith wasn't going to start something. Ellis's eyes went wide when he saw the look Keith was giving Nick like pure hatred. Keith saw the look of fear on Ellis's face and sighed.

"It's nuthin." Keith replied looking away from him.

Nick was about to say something but Ellis cut him off.

"He's not feelin very well Nick so don't worry about it. He always gets grumpy when he's like this." Ellis said trying to make it sound convincing that that's all it was.

Nick clearly didn't buy it but he wasn't in the mood to argue since all he felt like doing right now was going to sleep. As soon as the elevator door opened they all stepped out and started making their way down the hall to their rooms.

"Well boys since we have two rooms I suggest Keith and Ellis share a room and Nick and I will have the other. Is that ok with you guys?" Rochelle asked once they stopped in front of the doors to their rooms.

To be honest Ellis wasn't sure how to feel about this. At first he really wanted to share a room with Nick but with Keith's apparent hostility towards the older man Ellis knew he was going to have to deal with him first.

"I'm alright with that Ro." Ellis told her making Nick look at him surprised and with a raised eyebrow wondering why he didn't try to get her to switch rooms with him.

"Ok then well whatever you guys do please don't disturb me because I really need some time to sleep ok?" Rochelle said.

"Ok we'll let ya know if something comes up." Ellis told her before she smiled and unlocked the door to her room and closed it behind her.

Keith looked at Ellis with a serious look on his face before heading inside their room. Ellis was about to follow behind him when Nick suddenly grabbed his arm and turned him to face him.

"Ellis…" Nick started to say with a serious look on his face.

Ellis sighed.

"I know what yer gunna say Nick it's just that I need some time alone with him for a bit." Ellis told him making Nick frown slightly.

Nick was going to ask why but figured it was because they hadn't seen each other in awhile and this is the one time where they could finally catch up. This didn't make him feel any better though especially since there was something about Keith that he really didn't like.

"How long?" Nick asked.

"I don't know Nick. Look I promise I'll ask Rochelle to switch rooms with me as soon as I'm done talkin with Keith." Ellis told him.

"Why would you even need to share a room with him Ellis? You guys can hang out wherever you want to already." Nick replied feeling a little jealous.

"Keith doesn't know you or Rochelle, Nick and he's comfortable around me and I have a feelin that Ro would rather bunk with someone she knows instead of someone she just met." Ellis said looking at him.

Nick sighed as he ran his hand through his hair.

"I know he's your best friend but overalls there's something about him that I just don't like." Nick told him making Ellis wince.

"Nick if this is about how he was starin at you it really was just-"

"I don't think he likes me Ellis and I know that I'm not exactly the best person to get along with but the way he looked at me…"

"Nick I promise you it ain't like that. I'll talk to him and make sure he knows that yer not a bad guy. Just get some sleep because you sure as hell look like you need it." Ellis told him.

Nick sighed and nodded. What with all the shooting and running for their lives and stressing out it definitely took a toll on him especially after watching Coach get killed he needed some time to rest.

"Yeah alright fireball just please switch rooms sooner rather than later alright?" Nick said feeling very tired.

Ellis smiled at him and nodded. Before Ellis could make a move to go to his room Nick quickly brought his lips to Ellis's and kissed him. Ellis wrapped his arms around him and kissed back before Nick pulled back and went inside his room to sleep. Just as Ellis was about to head towards his room Keith already opened the door and closed the door behind him so that both of them were standing out in the hallway.

"Keith listen I…"

"You what El?" Keith asked looking at him with his arms crossed over his chest.

Ellis rubbed the back of his neck nervously as he looked at him.

"Can we do this somewhere more private and away from their room please?" Ellis asked.

"Fine." Keith said as he led them all the way down the hall to the nearest vacant room.

Surprisingly one of the bedroom doors was still open most likely due to the fact that the doorknob was broken and so Keith led Ellis inside and Ellis shut the door behind him feeling at least hopeful that Nick wouldn't hear what was being said.

"So is there something you might wanna tell me El?" Keith asked.

Ellis felt horrible but he knew that he had to tell him.

"Durin these past couple of months I found myself wonderin where you were and if you were doing ok. When I came upon the group we're with now I WAS still in love with you and I really didn't want to think about if you had died so I kept bringin you up about how cool you were but they always told me to be quiet every time I tried to tell them something about you. For me it would've been nice to actually finish a story but the point is, is that whenever I thought about you I would always remember how a fuckin crazy son of a bitch you really were and that's what kept me goin because if you were crazy and survived all the things that you did do there was no doubt in my mind that you'd survive this zombie apocalypse and that's what kept me sane this whole time but after awhile with you not around I think I eventually just gave up on the idea of ever seein you again. While I was hangin around with Nick and them I started getting attached to Nick and to be honest I have no idea why but I really wanted Nick to notice me and to like me but of course that didn't happen right away. He was always saying how damned annoying I was but still I knew that I didn't want anyone else to help me but him when it came to healin me. I found myself always enjoyin the way he touched me or hell even complimentin me on my aimin when I killed a special infected. My heart would always speed up when he was the one who came to my rescue and at first it nearly scared me how I could possibly feel this way for someone else who wasn't you. Eventually I found myself afraid of the possibility that he could die and there wouldn't have been anythin I could do to stop it so just before we ran into you is where I found myself wantin to help him the same way he's helped me and for me to not have been helpin him until recently like that has made me feel real guilty of how I acted before." Ellis admitted having avoided looking Keith in the eye during that whole speech.

Keith didn't say anything for a few seconds before asking a question that he already knew the answer to.

"Are you in love with him El?" Keith asked.

Ellis rubbed the back of his neck afraid of what his answer would do to Keith but he knew that Keith deserved to know the truth.

"…Yeah." Ellis whispered feeling extremely guilty since to him it felt like he was cheating on Keith.

The look on Keith's face was one of pure anger and jealousy which made Ellis wince.

"Keith please I meant to tell you earlier but I don't want to be with you anymore I want Nick just please don't be angry."

Keith was shaking with anger clenching and unclenching his fists.

"How dare you El…you promised me that we'd be together forever!" Keith yelled out in anger making Ellis cower in fear as he backed away from him.

"T-things change Keith. You weren't around and I didn't mean to but Nick he…he saved mah life." Ellis said meaning that Nick saved his life in more ways than one.

Keith shook his head angrily as he moved forward and roughly grabbed Ellis by the arm and threw his ass on the nearest bed.

"You're mine, Ellis. Mine. Not fuckin Nick's. Mine and I'm going to prove it to you by fuckin you so hard there's no way in hell you'll ever go back to him!" Keith said as he got closer to him.

Ellis was wide eyed and tried to move away but Keith was so much stronger than him that he had him pinned and he roughly connected their mouths. Ellis tried his best to get away from him but with Keith's strength there was no way he could force him off him especially since Keith had a tight hold of both his wrists. What he heard next made Ellis's heart stop beating for a second. Keith loosened his grip to look up to see who had found them and to Ellis's horror it was Nick standing there in the doorway completely horrified and angry from what he was seeing.

Author's Note: Surprise surprise another update in less than a month from the last one. Still even though I updated again I still wouldn't hold my breath for another because I am still very badly in that lazy mode and I'm not sure if I'll get out of it anytime soon. I had to force myself to write this cause I wanted to update this story for this month instead of waiting forever for another update. Anyway I loved the reviews they also helped to get me to write this chapter as soon as I did. Sorry if the ending is bad I had to rush it because im finishing this chapter really late at night than I normally do. So anyway thanks for reading this story im sure by now most everyone who has followed or favorited has moved on with their lives so im not surprised if hardly anyone is still reading this (sighs) my fault for taking forever.


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